That Summer
by Sunshinegirl010
Summary: "That summer was a land of surprises and experiences that taught me more about what life and love are then anything I've ever known. I didn't know that love could be like that. That is until I met Damon Salvatore and my whole life changed forever." That summer was supposed to be boy free , but when Elena meets Damon- a cocky guy in beach bar band, it becomes anything but. A/U
1. Prologue

_Okay! So I decided to completely redo this story, so if you're reading this and are confused because you've read it before it's okay, I am the one who wrote it and I am just changing how everything else is. I didn't like the way the other story was turning out! I think you will like this version better, so I am going to post this and also the first actual chapter that is defiantly different! _

_So without further ado, I introduce to you _

_That summer…_

_-Katherine_

_Prologue_

We were wrong to think there would not be repercussions of our actions. In a situation like ours, there was no other foreseeable outcome but fallout. And yet, we still thought ourselves invincible, untouchable…safe. We were nothing if not the others forbidden fruit, which only made the other that much more appealing and grand. We both loved literature, and what was literature but one great unrequited love story. At least the good ones.

The ones that keep you coming back for more and push and pull you to the edge of our seat, until you feel just as frustrated as the protagonist in the story. It will not loosen its grip on your mind. It claims your every thought. Every emotion, until you've finished the last sentence in the novel. In most cases it does not end there, especially if the ending was not everything you'd hoped it would be. It lives in the depths of your mind, calling to you in daydreams and nightmares alike, giving you more agreeable scenarios in which the words that made the story could have played out. But then you come back to reality, and the words are unchanged, the scenarios unreal, and the characters have met the same untimely end as they did weeks ago when you finished the book.

That describes exactly what we were. One big love story, longer than Gone with the Wind that refused to change its final utterance of "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." We were never going to be able to change our words, for they were forever printed in ink that could not be erased. Our books may have yet to be completely filled, but the chapter that was us, is in its last words as I watch her walk away from me with a longing that is almost impossible to stomach. She doesn't want this. I could see it in the way her eyes were round and frightened earlier when she kissed me farewell, I can see it now as she rhythmically walks down the sidewalk and out of my life forever, I will forever see it in the times that I will think back to this moment, when I lost my everything.

Our love story was anything but perfect. We infuriated each other, constantly remained in combat over our insecurities and differences. She challenged me incessantly, tried to push me around, but I did the same. I made her look inside of herself and see that she was more than the little rich girl that her parents had raised. I was a neat freak, she had a tendency to be a slob. I didn't like to be romantic, and she liked romance. She didn't like mornings, and all day was my favorite time. But for all of our differences, there were enough similarities to keep us sane, to keep us together. We are not being pulled apart by choice, at least not my own. She made her decision, now we both had to live with the repercussions.

I know that I am not what her family expects. I play bass in a band, smoke the green and have tattoos on my arms. I realize that I could never give her the life that she is accustomed to, that she deserves. But what does that matter when I have made her happier the past two summers, than she has ever been in eighteen years?

She told me once that she was pretty sure who she would end up having to marry one day. Some guy (that I refuse to remember the name of) that her father had always liked, from a family that his company did business with. She's always been good friends with the guy, loved him like a brother. But there wasn't any real love there. Genuine love. Make you go crazy, out of your mind love that swallows your body whole and makes you want to spend every waking moment with that significant other. She said she'd never felt that way about anyone but me, I guess she decided I wasn't worth the risk.

When we met, I just wanted to get laid. She introduced herself as Elena, I introduced myself as Damon, and that was where our epic failure began. She'd come to watch the band play at _The Shack_, the local bar in the town of her families summer home. I remember she still smelled like the ocean and suntan lotion, a sexy combination in the beginning of the summer, and I'd just broken up with my girlfriend three weeks before, giving me ample reasons to find my next one night stand to get over her. Elena ended up being anything but a rebound.

I'd never met a girl that could piss me off and make me want to kiss her at the same time. She had no problem expressing her views and opinions on things that would clearly upset the person she told them to. She just had a fire and life that was so passionate and unguarded. Before you get to know her, she is so sure of herself, nothing will stand in her way. Or so you think. But in spending the past summer with her, I've learned more than my fair share about what she was really like, and there is defiantly more than meets the eye.

After convincing her to leave the bar with me that night, I'd thought I had it sealed in the bag in the getting laid department, but ended up being anything but wrong. She was drunk, really drunk. And in all of my life, I'd never taken advantage of a drunken girl. I didn't want that on my conscience it was fully stocked as it was. So I took her to the house that I shared with the rest of the guys in the band, laid her down in my bed and left it at that. She woke up the next morning pissed off and hung over, but I can still see her sitting at our messy kitchen table, her hair in a mess sipping on orange juice and an aspirin.

Before long, Elena at our house became a frequent occurrence. In the beginning she would just come over and listen to me and the guys strum around on guitars in the front yard. We usually always had campfire going, our lawn chairs circled religiously around the fire as we played random music to pass away the nights when we didn't have a gig or a party to go to. She became a staple on those nights. I got accustomed to the comfort her presence brought to those nights we spent underneath the stars. On most occasions, she and I would end up the only ones around a dying fire, the smoke burning our noses as I slowly strummed the chords to an acoustic version of an old _Beatles _song.

As time passed, and weeks turned to the months that ended our summer, we grew closer and eventually formed a relationship. She was the best one night stand I never had. I learned that she was four years younger than me, eighteen and fresh out of high school. She was from a small town in innermost Virginia, where the families there were known for their wealth and class. Her parents, who were the constant scandal in the said small town due to her father's unwavering infidelity, always brought Elena, her siblings, and some of her closest friends with them every summer to enjoy their beach house in Chincoteague, Virginia.

It was a small sleepy little town that brought in tourists that never stayed for too long, but enjoyed the peacefulness that accompanied the small town and small beach in eastern Virginia. Elena had once told him that they'd come there every summer for as long as she could remember. Damon had lived there for as long as he could remember. His Mom had moved them to Chincoteague after his Dad left them and never turned back. She worked as the towns librarian, and he'd spent every summer there as a kid, where he was sure he'd picked up on his love of literature.

He couldn't remember a day in his life where he didn't read something with purpose. His mother always had a new book to place in his hand, giving him an unexplainable need to let words flow through him like nothing else ever could. He guessed that's where his love of music came from. Songs were nothing without the lyrics that made it all worthwhile. Words were his life, although he didn't speak them much, and he could never find a good reason to say something unless it was going to make a difference.

So he said nothing, allowing his siren's shadow become smaller and smaller on the sidewalk as she receded from his view. He searched in vain for the words that would be worth something now, anything that would make her turn back around and give him that apologetic look he'd seen so many times before after their many arguments. However, he knew it was too late. With a sigh he turned away from her receding form, allowing himself a breath he didn't realize he was holding in, trying to not to think about the girl who'd swooped him up in a long summer and even longer nights, and walked away from her memory for forever.


	2. Chapter 1: Damon

_Here is where we really get to delve. So this is in Damon's point-of-view and it is three months before the last chapter! So I hope you guys enjoy and please let me know what you think! The first few chapters are of Damon and Elena in their respective summers, but they will meet soon! I promise! _

_-Katherine_

_**Three Months Earlier**_

_**Damon **_

Walking out into the humid Chincoteague weather, I take a deep breath of the sweet salty air that means I'm home. To say that I missed this place would be an understatement. I fucking longed for it.

All year long, stuck in a musty city with nothing but pavement and skyscrapers to look at all day doesn't do much for a guy's soul. Sure there's inspiration lurking in every corner of the big apple just waiting to be turned into lonesome chords of bluesy jazz that will give your ear an orgasm the first time you hear it, but there's no simplicity to the big city. Only a rush of cars and gigs and promises that get me through until I can return here again.

Besides I missed my mom. Sure a twenty-four year old that still has a heart that beats for his mother may not be on your top ten lists of things that make you hot, but the woman raised me; alone at that, in a small town that, while everyone loved my mother, looked down on single mothers like they were some kind of disease. I'd always felt extremely protective of her and my younger brother Stefan and have always ensured that I was there for them in the way my father wasn't. Sure it sounds corny and over used, but it doesn't matter if it's true. I owe her my life, so the least I can give her is my summers.

At least that's part of the reason I come here.

Here, there's nothing but waves and sunshine and summer, and hot chicks to make my heart race at ninety miles an hour. It'd been too long since the sweet woman named summer had come out to play and damn it if I wasn't ready to spend the next three months making love to her long nights and warm sunny days. I can already imagine the sounds of the waves underneath the sound of the bass of a slow blues song at nights spent at _The Shack_, where I would more than likely spend the majority of my time.

_The Shack, _while falling apart at the seams from the roof to the wall we'd knocked out years ago, had not lost its appeal and charm to all of the kids – including myself – that had lived in Chincoteague all of their lives.

The small bar, hidden in a cove right off the seeming end of the beach, had been a safe haven of sorts for as long as I can remember. There hasn't been a summer to date that I and the rest of my buddies haven't spent long nights boozing it up and playing every Friday and Saturday in the band. I can't remember when exactly people started going there; it'd always just been the bar that we'd all called home. It was our escape during the summers, somewhere that we liked to pretend our parents didn't know about when we all knew they did. But it still gave us a rush to know that we were doing something bad.

Taking another deep breath in, I cherish one more moment of happiness to be home before setting off to town on foot. The walk really wasn't that bad, I find it almost peaceful, along a small well beaten path that leads away from the small four bedrooms house that I call home every summer.

How the band and I had ended up staying at the house was really a question that dumbfounded me. I can't tell you why or when we all started staying there, it just sort of happened. A member of the band Klaus Michelson's family owned the place and had for years. It had always been somewhere besides _The Shack_ that would hold the occasional party, since the place was so secluded. Plus, it had always been somewhere to crash if you'd had too much to drink at _The Shack_ since it was just a quick walk through the woods from the bar.

One night though, at the beginning of a summer a few years ago, after the band and I had played a gig; we all had had a little too much to drink, and continued to have too much to drink for the rest of the summer. Before too long our things ended up making their way into the house in rooms that were suddenly claimed as our own to live in during the long hot summers we spent in Chincoteague. And while the place could get crowded, there were five of us living there for the past few years, it was our home and honestly I can't think of anywhere else like it.

I wave to someone on the sidewalk, someone I don't really recognize, but someone who defiantly recognizes me. And who wouldn't. Most people know me by my last name, Salvatore, which also belongs to my godsend of a mother Ellen Salvatore, the town librarian. Most knew her and her simple easy charm. She never spoke above a low calming inside voice and had a tendency to use slang from the seventies like_ groovy_ and _far out_. Although she was a bit on the wild side, she was still my mother and I cherished every moment of her strange quirkiness that she was almost always sure to grace me with.

Finally reaching my destination, I open the ringing door that will lead me into the main room of the library. The eerie quiet of the place over takes me and I'm suddenly uncomfortable when I don't find my mother right away; I'd never done to well with silence. But just as quickly as the feeling comes, it ends with the chiming of my mother's voice calling my name with uncharacteristic volume as she rushes towards me from the back, arms outstretched asking me to come into her warm embrace.

She kisses my forehead and I squish up my face in displeasure as I catch a glimpse of the red lipstick staining her lips. Mom just laughs and shakes her head, licking her thumb before rubbing it on my forehead where her lips have made their mark.

"Ma…," I complain backing away, "seriously? I've been here two seconds and your already treating me like I'm ten years old."

She just laughs again, throwing her head back, "I'm sorry dear, old habits die hard. I just can't believe you're actually home again. You know you really should just consider moving back here. I do worry about you in that big city…and you know, I think there's a house for sale on Porter, right on the beach…"

I just roll my eyes at her like usual and drop my hands from her grip where she grabbed them earlier, "Ma, we've talked about this. I'm not moving back here, you know there's too much history here for me to even think about trying that anytime soon."

Mom just shrugs her shoulders, "It never hurts to consider. And honey it's just been such a long time…I think it's time you moved on… "

"Look Ma, that last thing I want to talk about is _that_." I say cutting her off and wincing when I realize it came out sounding harsher than I intended.

I sigh, trying to quickly come up with something to change the subject.

"Stefan will be here soon. I tried to wait on him to get to the house, but he got held up at an exam or something at school today and may not be able to come until tomorrow. We'll see though, I have a feeling Lexi will be very effective at getting him here on time."

"Well hopefully everything will turn out all right and then I will have all of my ducks in a row once again."

"I'm sure it will. Besides, do you really want Stefan here? It'll just take your time away from your favorite son." I sing-song, just to try and tease her a bit. Stefan had always accused her of picking favorites, but Damon could never quite agree. An angel like their mother could never be accused of being anything but fair, especially when it came to her children.

"Oh…Damon you know it breaks my heart to hear you say things like that, even when we know it's horribly true." She jokes back, and I smile at her warmly, having missed the easy conversation that came from speaking with my mother.

She was one woman I didn't have to smooth talk or flirt with. (It would be weird if I did.) I always found it so refreshing to just appreciate the beauty that was my mother without worrying about said woman ending up in my bed later. Because one thing was for sure, if Stefan and I got nothing else from her, we certainly acquired her good looks.

I have always had a knack for appreciating beauty in a woman, relative or not, and found my mother attractive in an easy going and natural way. With her, there were no pretenses or games; she was just simply herself, Ellen Salvatore, the strong single mother of two boys that spent her days surrounded by literature. I hoped that one day I might find a woman as akin to my mother that I possibly could. That was the type of woman that I felt I could fall in love with and not the cynical bitch type I'd always seemed to pick.

But women like his mother were hard to come by. It's what made her one in a million.

"So," Mom began pulling me from my thoughts, "what are you up to today? Any special plans? Are you playing at _The Shack _tonight?" She begins to stack the books behind her desk on a cart to sort them out into the endless rows of words. For such a small town, it did have a rather large library.

"Not much. Ric called me earlier and asked if the band would be able to make it tonight. I don't see any reason why we couldn't so I told him yes." Mom just gives me a small smile that says that wasn't really the answer she was looking for, so I finally decide to give in and ask her what she wants.

"But…I don't have to be at _The Shack _until at least seven thirty, which is plenty of time for you to cook me dinner. If you're up for it?" she smiles knowingly, realizing I was just messing with her and gives me a hug, before sending me on my way, telling me to be ready for dinner at six.

"And invite your brother if he ends up getting here on time."

I roll my eyes and give her a mock salute like I'm ten years old again. "Will do mother dearest." And she just rolls her eyes right back and gives me the smirk we share, every blue eyed, crooked part of it.

I walk back out into the hot summer day, deciding it's the perfect day to go to the beach with the slight wind that is blowing through the air. I check my watch to see if I have enough time to kill until dinner and discover I have a few hours until I need to be at mom's house.

I take a left from the library and walk towards the sandy paradise that awaits me on the other side of town. I can already hear the silent waves calling to me from the north end of town, practically mewling with want from not getting to caress my body since last summer.

I buy a towel from one of the shops in front of the beach since I didn't bring one and sigh with relief when I discover that the beach is lacking tourists. One thing about Chincoteague was that it seemed to be a breeding ground for tourists during the summer. All of the inner suburbs of Richmond and other various small towns made their way to the peacefulness of the small beach town for their escape. They mostly kept to themselves, sometimes their teenagers would find their way to _The Shack_, which was fine, that's what it was there for.

However, the kids that seemed to come always ended up getting in trouble with their parents and had come close to getting the place closed down several times. Something that would kill the teenagers of the small town, including myself. I couldn't imagine a year without returning here in the summer. This was one of the main reasons that the band and I have made sure to become bouncers of sorts for the bar. If we didn't know them, we didn't trust them and that ensued to be our motto since two years ago when Sheriff White almost officially made us call it quits.

Still there were a few stragglers that ended up being our summer flings that gained entrance, but if we brought them to the bar, we trusted them and knew they wouldn't do anything that could possibly fuck anything up.

I pick a spot that is mostly isolated and sit down, pulling out my phone to make sure that I don't have any missed calls or texts and I don't…imagine that. Deciding not to dwell on my current state of duress, I just reconcile to lying in the hot sun, the sound of the waves high fiving the shore and the seagulls calling for a speck of bread swirling through my ears.

I never realize how much I miss this place until it's time to return. Then it's all speed packing and fast driving until I hit the city limits and sign that says "Welcome to Chincoteague". There's just something about returning here, where I planted my roots and grew up, that just brings a sort of peace to my soul that being anywhere else cannot.

Sure, New York is great. Living in the city that never sleeps, I can always guarantee that there will never be a dull moment, but being home, seeing my family and friends, and cherishing the two months of pleasant sunshine and waves is something that never gets old and never could.

I find my peace laying the sun's rays for the rest of the afternoon, letting my mind wander away from anything that is too harsh of a reality to handle, until my phone rings.

I look at the caller I.D. to see Stefan's name glowing back at me complete with a ridiculous drunken picture I took of him last summer. Ahhh…good times.

"Hello Brother." I drawl, always feeling the need to be condescending when it comes to my baby bro. Nothing personal, just an older brother's right.

"Hello back." He jokes, or tries to. Stefan never has been one to make audiences fall out of their seat at the local comedy club. It may not sound like he's trying to joke around to others, but I know my brother like the back of my hand, and the way his voice just delivered that sentence clearly tells me that was his intention. I just shake my head in pity, smirking, poor kid just wasn't blessed with the wit.

"So, have you decided to stop being 'that guy' and actually show up when you tell everyone you will or are going to be late…again I might add." Stefan hasn't been early or on time for a damn thing in his life. Always letting people down and never just getting his shit together to arrive somewhere on time. He was going to be late to his own damn funeral.

"Damon, I told you I had a test today."

"You had a test today my ass. You forget I live in New York too and have friends that go to NYU. I know for a fact that testing officially ended two days ago."

"It was a make-up test."

"So now your late and liar. Bravo. You're really adding to that list wrongs."

"Why do you always have to berate me like a child? You're supposed to be my brother, not my damn parent." I sigh at this because I know its part of the way true.

While our mother did an excellent job of raising us and I owe her everything and more, she just was never good at disciplining. And although I have a tendency to be wild and not really think of the consequences of my actions, I am strikingly responsible. I never had bad grades in high school and always show up where I am obligated to be and keep my things clean and pristine, it's just who I am.

Stefan on the other hand was lazy. He never lifted a finger, had to be pushed to do well in school, and if you could see the carpet in Stefan's room it was a good day.

Our mother has always been so willy nilly that she's never really given a thought to checking grades and grounding Stefan when he needed a come to Jesus meeting. So that role fell to me. I made sure that Stefan kept his grades up and his room clean. I made sure he didn't screw up his life and I made sure he got into college. It just felt natural to me to take care of him, but more often than not, it got into the way of our brotherly relationship.

"I'm sorry, it's just that I don't want you letting Mom down. She's really excited to you. To see us. She's cooking dinner at six."

"Well, then it's a good thing I'm already here."

I turn around when I can suddenly here Stefan's voice clearly and not muffled through the telephone. I smile and walk towards him. "Good to see you brother." I walk towards him and give him a slight hug/pat on the back. Now the fucking party can begin.

….

We find ourselves at Mom's soon after our reunion. We take his car to her house since I didn't have my Camaro and horseplay our way to the door, where Mom quickly runs out to hug her boys.

"I just can't believe you're finally here! I never thought I was going to get you two in the same room again now that you've both moved out of the house." I see her eyes beginning to brim with tears and roll my eyes. Our mother had always been one for the dramatics.

"Oh, come on Ma don't cry. Show us what you made for dinner." She instantly cheers up and bounces her way back into the house, holding the door open for Stefan and I. The scent of a home cooked meal instantly caresses my senses, taking me back to a time that was much simpler than now, when I only had to worry which skirt I was chasing next. Now I had that and rent to worry about. Oh the struggles.

We find our way to the kitchen table which is standing obscenely in the kitchen waiting expectantly with dishes and flowers awaiting Stefan and mine arrival.

"You two just sit down and don't worry about a thing. I never get to pamper you too anymore now that you're gone. It just sucks. It is a mother's duty you know. Not to mention my right."

She continues babbling on, laughing and asking us questions about our lives in New York over the sound of the _Beach Boys_ harmonizing through the speakers in her radio. Our mother had always been the one to listen to them all year round, sunshine or rain. She said they brought a little summer to her every day.

"Stefan how is Lexi and why is she not with you right now?" Our mother asks as she places the macaroni on the table and I notice that she's made one of each of our favorite foods. Mom is such a sucker for nostalgia.

"Lexi is visiting her parents right now. She said that she would make a point to stop by in a few days though."

"Well good. I need to talk to her about feeding my baby boy. You look absolutely scrawny."

"Ah, come on Mom. You can't read too much into that. It's probably his baby fat just now falling off." She shoots me a glare and I look down stifling my giggle as I load more mash potatoes on my plate.

Mom sits down and begins filling her plate with food. Stefan and I hold our own conversation for awhile when I notice Mom hasn't said anything in awhile. I look over to her and see her watching us, interacting like we haven't in a while. We really don't visit her enough.

Deciding that I don't want to see the water works start though, I just decide to pull her from her memories. "So Mom, what have you been up to lately?"

_Okay, nervous does not begin to describe me! I just really want you guys to respond to this well! I really like the concept! So fingers crossed. Please review just to tell me your thoughts!_

_-Katherine_


	3. Chapter 2: Elena

_Okay! Here is Elena's POV! I hope you guys like this! _

_**Elena**_

I smile as I drive past the "Welcome Chincoteague!" inviting me back into my own personal playground for the summer. Caroline squeals in the passenger seat, jumping up and down.

"This is so going to be the best summer ever!" she cheers enthusiastically as I roll my eyes. Caroline, for as long as I've known her has had the tendency to be over the top. I'll never forget my first real memory of her; we'd known each other since we were in diapers, but the meeting that sticks out in my mind is when were around five years old. She came to my house dressed to the hilt in a fur coat, sunglasses and this large floppy hat. If I remember correctly, she even had red lipstick adorning her small lips looking completely out of place on her pale skin. I asked her if we were playing dress up and she casually shrugged her shoulders, telling me no. It was just a regular Tuesday to Caroline Forbes.

I've never been around her a day in my life that she hasn't overacted to something menial. The girl got excited today when McDonalds was still serving breakfast.

But for all of her extravagances, Caroline was one of the most real people that I'd ever known. She'd stood by me, and I her, for as long as I could remember. When I got stood up for the first time in the seventh grade, Caroline was there as soon as I got off the phone with her with a revenge plan already in phase one. When she finally got a boyfriend that could drive her around, I jumped around for joy and even conceded to being the third wheel until she was comfortable enough to be alone with him. When I lost my virginity to Matt in the back of his ford, Caroline sat down with me in the woods as I cried, even shedding a few tears in my honor. There was just no turning back after all that we'd been through.

"Don't roll your eyes at me Elena Gilbert! You and I both know that we have to make the best out of this summer. So it has no choice but to be great! We can NOT waste our last summer together before college."

I just laugh and turn left onto Ocean View Drive, sighing as the boardwalk comes into my view. It's been too long since I've seen the wooden boardwalk caressed by the sun's glowing rays of light. The gentle waves caressing the shore with the sun gleaming and warm call me outside to enjoy its splendor. "I know Care. Believe you me it is my utmost intention to make this summer our best one yet…but then there's the whole Matt thing and…"

"Ugghhh! Elena could you just not, for like two seconds. You're always Matt this and Matt that…oohhh poor Elena! Wah wah wah! Just be happy that you have such a great guy that's willing to actually _be _with you. Do I even need to mention Tyler? He couldn't even commit long enough for us to be together for two seconds. Matt already practically wants to marry you. You should be happy."

"We're eighteen Caroline."

"So? You're parents were eighteen when they got married." I winced at the mention of my parent's marriage and Caroline immediately conceded.

"I'm sorry; I guess that wasn't the best analogy."

I just shake my head and train my eyes back on the road. Caroline just didn't understand. Like everyone else in their small town, she'd been raised with the mindset that you graduate high school, go off to college and in between, which ever guy you picked up during those years that your parents found perfect and even maybe added to their status quo, if they were lucky, was the one you married. Matt see's us as that person for each other. I; however, do not.

Is it so wrong to just want to live my life before I make decisions that will change my life? I just wanted to go to college and be carefree and get into my writing and not have to worry about my husband at home. I wanted to make a name for myself as myself, Elena Gilbert. Not Elena Gilbert Donovan. If I was being completely truthful, I just wanted to be single. Plain as that.

"I guess you're right, Care. It still doesn't change the fact that I just want to have a carefree summer. No boys and no drama. I just want to spend it partying with my friends."

"That-a girl! Ohh! There it is!"

Caroline's jumping up and down again as wide grin over takes my face when we arrive at the blue two story house that I will call home for the next three months. I didn't realize how much I missed it here until we pull up in the driveway. It's only been a year but it already feels like an eternity. I can hear the ocean from where I stand in front of the house. If I walk into the back yard I will be met with the soft sand that will cling to my body and clothes for the whole summer.

We've come here for as long as I can remember. I can look around the neighbor hood and see the other founding families' beach houses littering the small community. There were home videos of us all out in diapers running through the sand and holding each other's hands as we slowly grew up here throughout our summers. There actually wasn't a summer to date that any of our families hadn't packed up for the whole holiday and made the two hour trek to Chincoteague, Virginia.

I look around the neighborhood and see that the Donovan's, Lockwood's and other various families from Mystic Falls have already arrived. We all mainly came here in the summer to escape the town that had always caused so much drama for its founding families. It seemed every turn we took there was a new rumor started. Not saying that it probably wasn't true, but we still didn't want it in the public.

It will be a good enough escape to remove myself from my own personal drama and just forget the world I know for awhile. I have longed for the long days and nights that are sure to be spent in this small town that has always been my escape. It's always been peaceful and welcoming and has never pressured me into making decisions I'm not yet ready to make. It only demanded I made a choice of where to go when the sun went down.

The heat caresses my skin as I step out of the car to start unloading our things. Caroline squeals (again) and runs straight to the house having already taken my key from me. I stare at her receding form for a minute to see if she's going to come back and help me. She doesn't.

I grunt as I carry her heavy luggage from the car to the porch, refusing to take it farther than that. If she wants her stuff she can carry it the rest of the damn way in.

Struggling with my own bags, I slowly make my way up the stairs when my phone suddenly starts to ring. I sigh and reach into my back pocket.

"Hello?"

"_Hi Honey. Did you and Caroline make it okay?" _

"Yeah, we just got here actually." I try to stifle a laugh when Caroline comes running around the corner looking freaking static to finally be here. We've been planning this for weeks. She actually squealed for about ten minutes when I asked her to come.

"_Good. Your father and brother and I will be there in about an hour. Feel free to go ahead and go down to the beach if you want to. We'll have dinner around six or seven." _

"Okay Mom. See you in a little bit." I hang up and put my phone back in my pocket and tell Caroline to go get her own bag sitting on the porch. She pouts but reluctantly goes to get it. I shake my head. She's so spoiled.

Caroline had been disappointed earlier in the year that she wouldn't get to come to the beach this summer after the Forbes had gotten a divorce earlier that year. When I explained the situation to my parents they were more than happy to allow Caroline to tag along with us this summer so we could spend it together.

We get settled into our room and put on our bathing suits before going down to the beach to enjoy the rest of the day. We find a spot where the sun will directly hit us, but where we'll still get a bit of the wind to cool us off as the sun cooks our skin to a golden brown. We lie down on our towels and get lost in the feeling of summer having finally arrived. We fall into a comfortable silence that I am almost positive will not last with Caroline around.

At her sudden exhale of breath my theory proves true and I only smile before turning my head towards her. "Yes, Caroline?"

"It's really nothing…just. Do you think Jenna will be able to get us into _The Shack _this year?" I suddenly feel excitement flood through me at the mention of the small bar. We'd been trying to get in for years, ever since we'd discovered that we _could_ drink and those stupid classes in middle school where we'd pledge to not be under the influence of alcohol until we were twenty-one really were a sham and what was the harm in a little fun?

We'd had fantasies about getting to go since we were awkward teenagers in Junior High. Caroline and I used to watch with large eyes as Caroline's older sister April and Jenna, my Aunt, would come in from a long day spent on the beach to get ready to go out. They would apply the makeup that we didn't know how to really put on yet, and let their pretty beach waves flow behind them, as they pulled on their short shorts and tank tops. They would go off into a world of boys and booze that we knew nothing about yet, but wanted so desperately to experience.

We would stare at their receding forms with envy and made a pact that one day we would be them, sixteen and beautiful, going out to see boys that we would get to leave at the end of the summer, our secrets with them getting buried with the first cold wind that blew through Virginia.

At sixteen we'd been so excited to finally make that pact come true, but the problem was we couldn't find the damn bar. It turned out you had to be invited to go there and Jenna had known the guy that was in charge of inviting people to get in. Word was he owned it now. But this year, Jenna was finally returning to the beach with them and would be there tomorrow afternoon. Maybe they could finally get into the bar that had filled their young fantasies.

"I don't know Caroline! Do you think she will let us go?"

"I don't see why not. Hey! Maybe you could finally get that summer fling you've always wanted." Joked Caroline as she poked me in the side. "You are single now."

I bite my lip and squeal feeling so much like Caroline I instantly start bursting out laughing. We practically hum with our excitement talking fast and almost feeling silly for being so ecstatic. It'd just been something that we'd always wanted to do. A hunger for every experience that life had to throw at us had always been the defining principle of Caroline and I, something that I have always been proud of. If anyone was going to get out of that miserable little town, it would be us.

As our excitement dies down we find a peaceful silence as we bask in the sun, listening to Caroline's iHome. Her beach themed playlist lulls me into a nap until I hear a familiar voice yell across the beach.

"Hey losers, how's it feel to finally get some sun on that pale skin of yours?" I jerk up to smile at my Aunt Jenna's face, giggling at her joke. I could almost cry at the familiar sight of her pale skin, hence her joke, and the soft red hair that frames her expressive face.

I hop up from the towel I'm lying on to run and give her a hug. "What are you doing here? I didn't think you were going to come until tomorrow!"

"Eh, plans changed. I just couldn't wait to see this old place." The twenty-five year old explains, gesturing back to the beach house. "So…tell me everything since I've last seen you two. How are the beaus?"

Caroline and I share a look and burst into giggles. Giving her the details about how both of our relationships have dwindled to nothing and that we were both single for the summer, looking for adventure.

"Oooh, so that means I'm in charge of making sure you two find flings to pre-occupy your time. We wouldn't want you getting bored."

"Come on Aunt Jenna, that's not the point of this summer. I don't want boys getting in the way of anything."

Caroline quickly hits me on the shoulder, "Speak for yourself. I am more than open to you finding me something to, uh; pre-occupy me if you want Jenna."

Jenna laughs and wraps an arm around Caroline's shoulders and looks back at me. "Pshh," she begins rolling her eyes, "boys never get in the way of anything. What are you talking about." She says sarcastically.

"You guys, you have to live a _little _bit before you go to college. Now before when you have come here you've had boyfriends to pre-occupy you, but not this time. So…I guess you'll just have to trust me to take you around and show you the real Chincoteague."

I roll my eyes. "What are you even talking about Jenna? This towns so small I'm more than positive we've seen all of it two times over." Scoffs Caroline, but then her face brightens and our eyes meet. I know we're thinking of the same thing. _The Shack_.

She looks at us knowingly, "You'll see. You two are coming with me tonight."

Caroline and I just share a look, not really sure what we're about to get ourselves into, but then again too excited to care.

….

My parents arrive thirty minutes later ready to cook dinner. Dad goes into his office mumbling something about a business call. My stomach goes sick, hoping that was all it was, a business call. Jeremy goes to his room to set up his video games and Mom goes straight into the kitchen, turning on _The Beach Boys_ wailing out _Barbra Ann_ while we stare at her and laugh. I can't remember the last time we all seemed so happy.

Rumors soar like nothing else in the small town of Mystic Falls and the Gilberts always had a way of coming full circle in the gossip. Well, not really us the Gilberts in general, it tends to circulate around Grayson, my dad.

Although he's a champion for a father, rumors say otherwise about his skills as a husband.

I have always been close to Dad. He and I share a special bond that I feel comes from his interest in history and literature, a particular trait that we have always shared. I can't think of a day in my life I haven't walked into the house to see Dad sitting in his office next to the stairs, reading some interesting new tidbit about Mystic Falls.

So, when rumors began to fly about Dad, I was sure to crush them when I heard any muttering about him being unfaithful to my mother. Why would I believe any different? Their relationship has always seemed so perfect and happy; they'd never given me any reason to believe to the contrary.

However the day I walked into his doctor's office downtown to find him laying his lips on the new history teacher at the high school Miss Langley, I began to have my doubts.

I remember standing there for a long time before they actually noticed I was there. I was just too shocked to say anything. I could never imagine my father doing something like that. When he looked at Mom it was just so…breathtaking. I never thought him capable of infidelity, until that one awful day I walked into his office and discovered all of the rumors were true.

As soon as they noticed me apologies and excuses began pouring clumsily from my father's mouth while Miss Langley just stood off to the side embarrassed and red from head to toe. Grayson looked back at her sadly and asked her quietly to leave, which she did quickly, never meeting my eyes.

When she left I began to shout, "How could you? How could you tear our family apart, how could you do that to Mom?" I didn't want excuses, I wanted explanations. How it began, why it began. But as I paced through his office screaming and crying, I suddenly came to the realization that I had to tell my mother what I'd witnessed. How does a teenager do that? It should never have been something I had to deal with.

I went to walk out the office before Dad stopped me and looked me earnestly in my raw, red, and teary eyes, "Elena, I can't ask you not to tell your mother. But I can tell you that what you saw was the end of this. I know it cannot go on and I love your mother and you and your brother too much to let another woman get in the way of that. It's over between me and Emily. It is; however, your choice if you want to tell your mother."

I nodded my head and looked him in the eyes before I told him that nothing had happened that day and that I hadn't seen anything. He gave me a tight lipped smile and a tender pat on the back before leading us out of the office to ask why I'd stopped by.

That was two months ago and about week after the incident, my parents announced that we would be taking our yearly trip to the beach, although we'd had planned to not go that summer. I'd shared a look with Dad that all but told me the reason he'd convinced Mom to get away from Mystic Falls for the summer. Looks like Miss Langley had started to talk, but I hadn't my lips were sealed and his secret was safe with me, no matter how much it killed me to keep something like that from Mom.

Mom's voice pulls me from my thoughts when she asks me to go get Dad from his study to tell him dinner was ready. I smile and get up from the bar stool and walk down the hallway to where Dad already had his computer and his files set up.

"I'm telling you Emily there's no way that I can convince her that I need to be back already. It's going to be a few weeks." There was silence as my heart began to sink, he'd sworn, promised me that it was over between them. Looks like I'm just the stupid little girl trying to play in a grown up's game.

I was more embarrassed than anything. He must think I'm some stupid little girl that could never understand anything about this. The truth was, I really didn't. But how could I ever begin to explain something like this to my mother. If there was one thing I could understand, it was being in-between a rock and a hard place. How my father lives with himself I may never know, though it's not really something that we ever discuss. The only time his affair is ever mentioned between us is small looks across the dinner table where we make eye contact and I allow my accusing gaze to linger on him when he says he's going out for a drive. I know where he's going. But I'm almost to the point of numbness with the situation. I can't allow the hurt or the guilt of not speaking of his transgressions get to me or I just know I'll go crazy.

I remain hidden in the hallway until I am sure their conversation is over and only then do I poke my head into the office. I tell him dinner is ready and I'm almost positive he can hear the quiver in my voice, but he should and he should feel damn ashamed of himself.

He looks at me strangely, (nervously), and smiles saying he'll be down in a minute. I just nod, trying to swallow the lump in my throat trying to remember how to act normal around my family downstairs.

I force a smile when I walk back into the main room where the kitchen and the living room are connected. "He'll be down in a minute. He just had to finish up a phone call."

Caroline's face falls. She knows what's been going on, she was the only person that I've confided in, she knows what kind of phone call it was. 'Are you okay?' she mouths and I nod and look away from her, knowing that if I look at her concerned face any longer I'll burst out into tears.

"Okay, well we'll just have to start without him. Jenna is starving; I'm sure, after her long drive."

"Hey," Jenna says indignantly to her older sister, "don't make me sound like such a pig." They just laugh like long lost friends. Which really they were. It was scary how close Miranda and Jenna were.

We all laugh, my mood having instantly lifted by being around the comforting presence of Aunt Jenna. She's always been more of an older sister to me than an Aunt. Someone I could really confide and trust in. She never made me feel like I had to guard what I said around her. She just let me make my own decisions and trusted my judgment. It was nice to be around an adult that didn't have your life already planned out for you.

Making small talk Jenna asks Jeremy about school and Mom does the same to Jenna asking her about grad school. We all fall silently until Aunt Jenna breaks it with her summer defining announcement.

"So Elena, Caroline and I were talking earlier," begins Aunt Jenna as she nibbles at her corn on the cob, "and we decided that they were going to hang out with me tonight." Caroline and I both turn our heads quickly to look at Mom's reaction, praying to god she'll let us go. I've always wanted to party with Aunt Jenna.

"Oh you did." Says Mom jokingly cocking her eyebrow as she makes eye contact with me. I pray she won't make a big deal about this. Before we left home I had a long conversation with her and dad about becoming more serious this summer. I really needed to spend time on the beach making college preparations and not staying out all night partying. It was like she didn't remember being a teenager at all.

"What about Matt dear? How will he feel about you going out without him?" I sigh and look down at my napkin in my lap. I hadn't told them that things with Matt were over, knowing they wouldn't approve. I look back up and smile.

"He won't mind."

Aunt Jenna catches my eye and I widen my eyes telling her to keep quiet. She concedes and looks at her sister.

"Come on Miranda they'll be with me. It'll be okay."

"I know, that's kind of what I'm worried about." Disappointment comes into my mind when I can already hear her inevitable no.

My mind drifts back to all of the summers that I've spent here when Aunt Jenna was here, Caroline and I wanting to go with her when she went out to hang out with her friends. I remember watching in amazement as she got to put on makeup over her newly golden tanned skin, in her short shorts and lose tank tops over her bathing suits.

I would always cry and beg to go with her and she always promised me that one day I would be old enough to go and finally…I was. I wanted to do a triumphant fist pump in the air, but I still had to wait on Mom's answer.

She catches eyes contact with me as I cock my head to the side and give her my best pleading puppy dog look. Mom looks over to Aunt Jenna and gives her a nod of her head and Caroline and I immediately stand up from the table to go and get ready.

"Hey, you girls need to finish your dinner!"

"We're done!" Caroline and I yell from down the hall at the same time, giggling as we already begin to plan our outfits that have been in the works since we were thirteen years old.

_Okay, not really sure how I feel about this chapter, I feel like I've written better things. It's just that I really want to try this story idea out, but I can never seem to get it how I want it and where I feel confident about it! Ugghhh! The struggles! Anyway feel free to leave me a review on what you think so far! _

_Also, next chapter Damon and Elena meet! Exciting stuff! _

_-Katherine_


	4. Chapter 3: The Shack

_Alright, this chapter, Damon and Elena finally meet! So exciting right?! I had a lot of fun righting this one, so let me know what you think!_

_-Katherine_

_**Elena **_

It turned out that Jenna did plan on taking them to _The Shack _and explained that her "friend" Alaric Saltzman owned the bar and had been the bar tender when she was in high school. She was sure that he would be able to get them in, Jenna couldn't alone.

"Believe me, I came here enough when I was younger, I'm pretty sure there is still a picture of me taking  
Jell-O shots on the wall. We should be fine."

We walk down the beach for a long time; I begin to wonder if Jenna even knows where she's going when she suddenly stops in front of a group of boulders that look to signal the end of the beach. I almost ask what the hell is going on when Jenna moves to climb over a group of bushes and reveals that there is a whole path behind them, seemingly leading to the bar of Caroline and I summer's fantasies.

Jenna notices us just standing there and turns around, "What are you doing? Come on, do you want to go or not." She whisper yells. Caroline and I look at each other and giggle, making Jenna smile and shakes her head.

"You two are such little teenagers. Just come on, please. And hurry."

"Gee Jenna, why so eager?" Caroline jokes as she climbs over the bush nearly falling and Jenna cuts her eyes at her. "It wouldn't have anything to do with your 'friend' Alaric, would it?" We look at each other and laugh at Jenna's expense. She'd tried her hardest earlier to hide her excitement of getting to see Alaric again, but no luck, we'd seen right through her. If anyone understood giddiness because of boys it was Caroline and I, we've had more than our fair share of flings. Not that our parents or boyfriends knew about those.

We'd both always had the tendency to wander, but when the boys picked out for you were so boring , you really had no choice but to go searching for something more. It's not really something I'm proud of, but I'm not ashamed of it either. It's just one more thing that's always made me, me. Sure I didn't know most of their names but those boys had a way of calming me that Matt would never be able to achieve. I could only hope that I would find another one of those nameless boys tonight, just to find some kind of peace to my restless soul. I would only be satisfied for a short time but there was always another night and another guy to fill that void.

The lighted path behind the bushes seems to stretch on for miles at my excitement to finally see the place I had imagined my summers being spent for so long. When I catch myself thinking this I realize how silly it is that I've so obviously had some unrealistic dream of this bar for so long. And that's all it was. A bar. Nothing special. Nothing important. Just a place where teenagers went in the summer to drink beer and listen to music and maybe find a few one-night stands. Somehow I'd found a way to romanticize it in my mind. If life had taught me anything, it was that things never turned out as great as you imagined them. Usually they are far from anything you expect.

Jenna stops right before we get close to what looks like the entrance and Caroline and I look at each other. She turns around and looks at us before beginning her speech. "Okay, so there is probably going to be a bouncer. Now he's not going to ask for I.D.'s or anything, but he will ask who invited us here. Just don't talk and let me get us in. Okay?" We nod, grinning from ear to ear hoping to God that she will just hurry up so we can begin boozing the night away.

We walk for awhile longer through the hidden path before turning a corner to see a man sitting on a stool in front of what looks just looks like an extension of the beach, albeit a more secluded one. The dirty blonde shaggy haired man seemed to instantly recognize Jenna smiling and opening his arms for a hug, only making us assume that this was Alaric.

"Ric!" she exclaims walking quickly towards him, letting him envelope her in his embrace. He picks her up and spins her around, a hearty laugh leaving his lips. I find myself recognizing him from passing over the years. Chincoteague was a small town; you never really did meet a stranger.

He takes a step back and observes her, "What the hell are you doing here? I thought you were on to bigger and better things. And here you are, knocking on my doorstep. I always knew you'd come back, they always do." He says half cockily, half jokingly.

Jenna rolls her eyes and punches him in the arm, laughing the whole time. "I have moved on to bigger and better things thank you very much. Grad school and all. I see you've been spending too much time with Damon. You've picked up his…what did you always call it? Uh-"

"Cocky asshole talk." He laughed and Jenna smiled. "Yep, I believe that was it." I listen to their easy going chatter and wonder for a moment who Damon was and how Jenna knew him. When Jenna looks back my way I pay attention to their conversation again.

"Well you still haven't explained why you are here at my bar." She raised her eyebrow, "Your bar now huh? And I thought you were on to bigger and better things." She says throwing his words back at him teasingly.

"Yeah I guess it was me who always said that huh? I live in New York during the year and just come back here during the summer. I've opened a bar there in New York too, so I guess you could say I'm living the dream."

"Hey! That was always your dream right?" He nods and smiles at her. I see that Caroline and I were defiantly right. They had been way more than friends; you could tell in the way that he looked at her, the way that they talked so easily with each other. It was sweet actually. He wasn't a bad looking guy I noticed after really getting a good look at him. . Broad shoulders, tall, muscular. He was defiantly a guy that I would go for.

"So, you just coming to make sure that picture of you is still up there? Because it is. There you've sat all these years in all of your drunken Jell-O shot glory." She laughs and then turns around and gestures to us.

"Any chance that I can show these two that picture?" Alaric looks past Jenna to the two of us. He looks us up and down and I suddenly feel self-conscious under his stare.

"Now you know how we are about letting in new people Jenna." She grabs onto his hands and kind of jumps up and down in the classic, 'but daddy' stance that all of us richer girls learn from a young age when we want something. "Come on Ric, I know the rules. I wouldn't have brought them here if I didn't think they were worthy. This is their last summer before college and I promised them that I would make it special for them. Don't make me a liar."

He gives us one more calculating look before nodding his head, finally giving in to Jenna's pathetic pleading. "Thank you Ric!" She exclaims giving him a kiss on the cheek before pulling him away from the stool. "Now buy me a drink."

He laughs and follows her, calling someone else to the stool to watch incoming people. We walk past the stool and Caroline and I stop to bask in what we'd always wanted to see.

It was actually how I'd always imagined it. Where Caroline and I stood, we were still on the beach. It didn't stretch on for long, but the private beach was littered with towels and bodies lying on top of them, some making out, others simply lying there looking at the stars. The actual bar looked like it was about to cave in. It stood off to the side, blue chipping paint, and bar stools around it. The top reminds me of a Tiki hut, something you would see in Hawaii. Behind the bar though, was where everyone stood in front of a live band.

I'd never known they had that, but she could almost understand the appeal of the place that much more now. At the moment they sounded mostly like a cover band, playing a song by the Stones. My eyes scam over the band and fall on one member in particular when I notice he's staring at me.

The bass player keeps his eyes pinned to mine once he gets my attention. I look around for a moment subtly; making sure it was me that he was so intently staring at. Once I decipher he is looking at me, I notice how strikingly gorgeous he is. My god was he good looking. Those blue eyes did not waver from my own until I finally decided to look away from him, all tall dark and handsome. I suddenly feel someone come up behind me and I jump.

"Looks like someone might have already found her fling." Caroline whispers in my ear. I turn around and give her a scolding look.

"Ughh, Caroline as if. You know guys in a band aren't really my type." I say as I sit down at the bar and wonder where Jenna got off to. Caroline sits down next to me, clearly not ready to let this topic go. Really I could probably blame every guy I've ever gotten involved with on Caroline.

"Whatever. You've dated plenty of guys in bands. Plus, you love music. A guy in a band equals music; it would be like the perfect match for you."

"Okay, _that _guy in a band is not my type. Just look at him, he exudes cockiness." Caroline blew a laugh through her nose. "No, what he exudes is sex appeal. I mean just look at him. I'll bet he's great in the sac."

I roll my eyes and order a beer. "I don't know. It just really doesn't sound like a good idea." I already had a bad feeling about the guy. Sure he was good looking, but he was leering at me earlier. Okay, maybe not leering, that made him sound like a pedophile. But it was almost like he literally just picked me out of a crowd of people and said 'Yep, I'm going home with…her.' It gave me the creeps.

"Well someone's being picky tonight." Caroline says ordering her own beer, leaning up against the bar and scanning the room, already looking for her own night's conquest.

"I am not being pick-, you know what, fine if he comes over here, then I will talk to him and I will be nice and flirty and whatever else you would deem appropriate."

"Good for you Elena Gilbert. Glad to see you coming out of your shell."

"As if I was ever living inside of one." We clink our glasses together and look towards the stage and notice the band has stopped playing. The lead singer, a tall leggy blonde with long hair announced that they would be taking a break and the group left the stage. I wondered if tall, dark and handsome would come over and talk to me but ended up not having time to wonder when I spy him walking casually up.

He takes his place on the complete opposite end of the bar, ordering a beer for himself and leaning his elbows onto the counter. Caroline gives me a coy look before disappearing into the crowd. I sigh, rolling my eyes up to the ceiling. Taking the final sip from my beer, I set it down and listen to the resounding hollow sound from the bottle, for it only to be replaced by another. I jump, feeling like I've just been caught staring.

I look up and meet the eyes of Alaric and know I've been caught by the smirk he's giving me. "Jumpy." He laughs and I give him a wry look taking a long pull from my beer. "His name is Damon by the way." I give him an indignant scoff and lean in closer to the bar, "Well, no one said I was interested now did they?"

He rolls his eyes, "Don't waste your breath sweetheart, I saw you making googly eyes at him earlier. You don't have to be ashamed," he winks, "secrets safe with me." I smirk at him and roll my eyes. He was feeling a little too papa bear for my taste, but Jenna must see something in the guy. Which reminds me…

"Where's Jenna?" Now it's his turn to get caught. He coughs and looks at me shyly. I smirk and wink at him, "Don't worry," I knock my knuckles on the bar, "secrets safe with me." He laughs and excuses himself to wait on other people.

I watch him walk down to where Damon is sitting. The pair clasp hands and pull each other into a quick guy hug, smiling, obviously not having seen each other in a while. They talk for awhile, but I can't really make much out of their conversation, when the tall blonde singing earlier comes walking up to the bar. She hits Damon on the back of the head and orders her own drink.

He clasps the back of his head, "Bitch."

The blonde rolls her eyes and smiles to Ric, holding up her shot of tequila is mock salute, "That's for being late earlier ass whole."

He scowls at her and opens his mouth to reply, "Well, if your Saint Stefan of a boyfriend wasn't late for dinner with Mom, then I wouldn't have been late."

"Stefan was right on time Damon, explain that." He shrugs his shoulders and looks at her irritatiedly, "Could you stop buzzing in my ear for like two seconds Lexi?" he holds up two fingers, "Two fucking seconds, that's all I want." She rolls her eyes and gives Ric a smile like she's just accomplished something great and walks away, a small skip to her step.

"You know, she just likes to get a rise out of you." I hear Alaric tell him and Damon takes a pull from his beer shaking his head. "How Stefan stands to live with that self righteous horror story I'll never understand."

"Oh, come on. You half way love getting to mess with her." Damon doesn't say anything else and looks around the room. "So where's Katherine? Did she decide not to come tonight?" I see Damon stiffen at Ric's inquisition. _Who's Katherine? _

Damon's reaction was not lost on the bartender. "What happened? I thought you two were doing great." Alaric notices my empty bottle and gives me another one, instantly bringing Damon's attention to me. I can feel his gaze as I look forward to the wall of pictures, making me slightly uneasy in me inebriated state. How many beers was this?

"Yeah, things just weren't exactly panning out there. I figured it was time to cut her loose." Not taking his eyes off of me Damon replies. Alaric blew a laugh through his nose. "So you finally realized what a cold hearted bitch she was."

Damon shrug's, "Essentially. Who's the new girl?"

Alaric looks my way, while I give Damon an indignant look, "Who her? Elena." Damon nodded. "What is she a tourist? I thought we said locals only Ric, it's the best way to keep things quiet or isn't that what you always say?" he comments mockingly. So much for him being gorgeous, he was a total ass.

"Damon, quit being a dick." Damon held up his hands in mock surrender, "Hey, I'm just bringing up the rules **you** made." Damon looks back over at me with that frustrating smirk again as I noticed my irritation growing. _What_ _was with all the staring?_ Besides I'm sitting right here, why didn't he ask **me** who I was? I finally looked over to the man that had spent the better half of ten minutes staring at me. Not to mention all the time he'd watched me while he was still on the stage.

"I'm sitting right here you know. I can hear you." I say waving my hand to get his attention. He looks my way (again) and smirks, chuckling softly to himself. Ric looks at him scoldingly telling him to be nice.

I find myself wanting to slap him; I always do get feisty when I'm drunk. Deciding I'd had enough, I stand up from my place on the bar, already feeling a little wobbly from the shot I'd taken earlier and all the beer. "And if I'm not welcome here, then I'll just leave and you'll never hear from me again."

I hear his soft chuckle again, only making me angrier. He grabs me by the elbow and pulls me back to my seat at the bar. "Feisty, I like it. Maybe I was wrong, tourist or not I'm sure that we will more than enjoy your company here." I feel my hand twitch with how much his condescending tone makes me want to slap him. Who was he to say these things to me, a girl he really hadn't even been introduced to?

I open my mouth to give this guy a piece of my mind when he looks over my shoulder and yells to the person he see's. "Jenna Summers." He says suddenly, making me turn towards my Aunt. Jenna rolls her eyes and shoots me a strange look. "Damon Salvatore." She says condescendingly, "I thought that maybe I would be able to come here and still get to avoid you."

"Aww, come on now Jenna, you wound me." He says fanning hurt on his face and holding a hand over his heart. "We had some pretty good times back in the day."

"Yea, when you weren't being an ass." Jenna says as she finally shoots down the tequila she ordered a minute ago.

"See now you're getting confused. It's not that I am an ass. It's that I have a nice ass. There is a difference my dear. I thought a smart girl like you would know that."

She just rolls her eyes and finally cracks a smile, "Good to see you too Damon."

"You two know each other?" I ask and they both give me quizzical glances. "You two know each other?" Both Damon and Aunt Jenna ask me at the same time.

He leans up against the bar next to me, looking at me but I'm still looking ahead. I haven't decided if his cockiness and ass-whole tendencies are just a joke or the real him. If it is then the next few minutes for him are guaranteed to be pointless. No matter how good looking he was. I couldn't deny that.

"Yeah, yeah, good to see you too." He says finally cracking a genuine smile her way. Jenna nods her head towards him and gestures to me. "This is my niece Elena."

"I know. We just met." He says and Aunt Jenna narrows her eyes at him.

"Oh no you don't, Damon Salvatore. Not with my niece. She's only eighteen, so you keep your leery eyes and hands away from her." I turn my head towards her instantly with a scowl, telling her with my eyes to bud out.

I finally allow my eyes to meet his and am taken aback when I do. I've never seen eyes so icy blue before. They're intoxicating and I'm not sure how long I stare at them until I realize he's held out his hand for me to shake.

"I never formally introduced myself." He says, "Damon Salvatore." I roll my eyes and snarkily hold out my own hand. "Elena Gilbert." I give a firm jerk of my hand, quickly letting go and facing the other way so I don't have to look at his damn handsome face anymore.

"So, can I buy you a drink?" Really? Was I the only one who noticed what a complete ass he was to me earlier?

"Um, I'm going to say no." He has the audacity to look offended and leans in just a smidge closer to me at the bar.

"Come on Gilbert. Quit trying to be coy." He says smirking.

"This has absolutely nothing to do with being coy, _Salvatore_." I use his last name condescendingly. Who did he think he was? Besides, we weren't on a basket ball team, no need to use my last name. "I just don't want you to buy me drink. And really, don't you think its a little cliché?"

He gives a small laugh. "Okay, so you're not going to be easy, I get it." I look at him scowling, what made him think that he would ever get me easy or not? _Oh Elena, you know you're sort of eating this attention up anyway._ I ignore the entirely too attuned voice in my head and look at him square on, prepared for the second time that night to tell him off, when the tall blonde from earlier, Lexi I think, comes walking up.

"Come on Damon! Quite trying to get laid and get your ass back on stage." I turn towards her to get a better look when and she stands directly in front of Damon, "Ric says we have to start playing again and quit milling around or we don't get paid. Now I, I want to get paid."

"God Lexi, just chill out for five seconds and let me finish my beer. The crowd will still be there when I get done." The girl, whom I'm assuming to be Lexi, sighs loudly before grabbing Damon's ear and yanking him off the bar stool where he sat beside me.

He pushes her off and adjusts his collared shirt before turning towards me, immediately turning back on the charm. "I'll see you around Gilbert." I roll my eyes and yell after him, "Don't count on it." He smirks back at me over his shoulder. Watching him walk back to the stage, I suddenly look away feeling a smile creep to my lips. I take a pull of my beer, not even wanting to come to terms with whatever mansonist shit I was going through to be able to smile at that ass. _The ass with a nice ass_.

I push my thoughts away from the raven haired mans glutens and take pleasure in the memory of the Lexi girl man-handling Damon. That had been classic and defiantly did not go with the image that he was trying to set off.

I turn back towards the bar and let out a breath that I hadn't realized I'd been holding in. What the hell was that? I honestly had no clue what I thought I was doing. I have always made a point of avoiding guys like Damon Salvatore, I found myself much too attracted to him. And while Matt and I were on the outs right now, that didn't mean we would be for long. Especially if our parents had anything to do with it. I knew better than to string along someone that I had zero to no chance of having an actual relationship with.

Then again, Damon didn't seem like the kind of guy that would want anything too serious. Thinking back on our conversation, he actually did seem like the _wham-bam-thank-you-Ma'am _type. And didn't Jenna tell him to keep away from me?

Ugghh, I just wanted to forget about it already. This wasn't supposed to be complicated and he was already making me think too much. I am defiantly going to have to cross him off the list. I turn back towards the bar and sigh in defeat.

Looking next to me, I notice that Caroline is no longer anywhere to be found and scan the room, when I notice her talking to British invasion and wonder for a minute why he wasn't on stage with the band if he was a member. Well at least one of us was getting laid tonight and it certainly wasn't me.

For lack of anything better to do, I decide to drown my sorrows in my beer.

I look down into my chilled mug and see the decisions and the secrets in my life that have drowned me for so long floating in amber froth. I see my loneliness now, I see the fact that I'll probably have to marry Matt too and do the only thing that seems plausible at the moment. I swallow them down. Hoping, that in some way or fashion, those defining points of my life could somehow be absorbed into my body like the alcohol into my blood. Making them a part of me, but just for the moment, something that would eventually pass from my system so I didn't have to deal with the hangover anymore.

I look back to the stage when I hear the band begin to play again and watch as Damon slowly begins to strum the bass guitar under seemingly skilled hands. I can't help but to feel that I'm in deep trouble as I subconsciously think about what else those hands are skilled in.

_Okay so what did we think? I had fun writing Damon and Elena's interaction together. Do you think I'm keeping it in character? I mean I know Elena would never be the one-night standy girl that I'm making her out to be. But I feel like she was a lot different before her parents' death and this is an Elena without her parents dying. Although I have written her parents much different than on the show I do feel confident in my decisions. _

_Still tell me what you think! Next Chapter will be in Damon's point-of-view again! So look forward to that! Thanks! _

_-Katherine_


	5. Chapter 4: Down by the Water

_Okay everyone, here's the next chapter! I hope you like! _

_-Katherine _

_**If you fall asleep, down by the water**_

_**Baby I'll carry you, all the way home**_

_**-"Down by the Water" Drums**_

_**Damon**_

I take my place back on stage completely unable to remove the conversation with Elena from my mind. There just happened to be something about her, though I have yet to pin point exactly what it is. I keep trying to tell myself it's the mile of leg that I can see poking out from the very short shorts that she's wearing, but really who am I kidding? Look at me, normally I wouldn't be able to recognize the girl later, but here I am, already contributing her name to memory and the smile that I should associate with it.

This just simply wasn't normal behavior.

She sits at the bar now, looking deep in thought over some great injustice or another. I don't imagine that it's anything that pressing because one thing was for sure if she was Jenna's niece. Elena Gilbert was rich. Like the Daddy will always take care of you rich.

If I remember correctly, Jenna was a part of the group from Mystic Falls that came here every summer. They all bought beach houses right next to one another and threw huge parties all summer long, full of extravagance and money. Jenna and April Forbes however had always somehow found their way down to _The Shack_ and typically spent their summers as far away from their families as they could.

Jenna and Alaric had actually always had a thing. Well, more than a thing if they would just be honest with themselves. We all know that they both try and pretend that they don't miss each other from the summer that they spent together; honestly they're not fooling anybody. Jenna may be trying to pretend that the only reason she came here was to bring Elena; however, she wasn't going to sneak that one under my nose. But what are you going to do, those two kids just absolutely refused to admit they cared for another. Unless you got them drunk that is. Now that I think about it, I wonder where Alaric and Jenna have run off to and can't seem to place them anywhere in the bar, which can only mean one thing.

As soon as the band is situated on the stage, I begin to strum along. I feel the music flow from my finger tips and out through the amp to the awaiting ears of the crowd. They yell in appreciation and recognition and begin to sing along as Lexi belts out the tune at the top of her lungs. She really does have a great voice if I allow myself to get past all of my other convictions about her.

It's not really that I don't like her; it's just that we've never really gotten along. Lexi was a girl with so many opinions that she gladly threw anyone's way no matter how offensive they were. She really had more than one way to get under my skin and usually that was exactly what she did when we were around each other. The girl irritated me to no end and we fought constantly. However, for all of my dislike of her, she has one redeeming quality that has kept her in my good graces: she loves my brother.

Stefan had been down a hard road. His whole life has been one big goal to replace the father that he never got to know. While I remembered the father that was never home and treated our mother like shit; Stefan remembered the man that would sometimes sit him on his lap and read him the occasional bed time story. The man had an unexplainable soft side for the kid, something I'd always been mildly envious of. Still I believed that Stefan really just loved the _idea_ of what he thought Dad was like. In reality, there was no way in hell that he actually remembered the man, except through stories and pictures.

Still, it was undeniable that the day that Giuseppe Salvatore walked out of the door, a piece of Stefan walked out with him and left him a little empty inside. By the time he was a teenager, Stefan had started to go downhill fast. While most teenagers drank and used a little, Stefan took everything to a whole new level, becoming a borderline addict by the time he was sixteen. He went off to college with his same problems that I'd been trying cure him of for years and then returned home instantly seeming better. He was clearer and more in tune with what was going on around him and when asked what the sudden change was, he uttered one simple name: Lexi.

I for one was stunned, she'd somehow found a way to make him find a peace with his daddy issues, something I'd been trying to do for years and she achieved it in a semester at school. There was just a kind a respect that I had to allow her for that.

Everyone looks back at me when I mess up a chord and I curse for letting myself get so lost in my own thoughts. About Lexi no less, the bitch had just embarrassed the hell out of me in front of Elena.

Elena.

I look to the bar to see if she's still there and see she is. I can't help but to wonder what she's thinking as seriously about as she stares down into the amber liquid in her mug. I catch her gaze for just a moment and find she's glaring at me. _What the hell is that about? _

I know that I was a dick to her at first. Hell I was a dick to everyone I met at first. And really, I tried to make it up to her, or more as I hit on her which probably only made the situation worse. Still, she should take that as a complement, not an insult. Why did girls always have to get so offended from a little attention?

Elena stands up quickly and I watch as she stumbles on her feet for a moment, before she walks away from the bar and out onto the beach. I wonder how much she's had to drink tonight. Looking around for her blonde friend that came with her, I spot her sitting close to the stage making googly eyes at our guitar player Klaus. God, girls were such a sucker for that damn British accent.

I decide to take my mind off of Elena for awhile and concentrate on the song. It's not like she's actually my problem. I only talked to the girl for a few minutes. I play the rest of our set without anymore thoughts directed towards Elena, playing the same songs that I have memorized over the years without fail. I allow the crowd's reaction to fuel my fingers, loving the way their voices feed my need to play even more.

Finally we finish and Lexi announces the end of our set, before telling them the party wasn't over yet and that they were more than welcome to stay until last call. I place my bass back into its case and lie it down against the wall to take home later. I go to the bar and order a beer and take it out onto the beach when the bartender brings it to me.

I walk out onto the beach, the only light coming from the moon overhead, but I can still make out her silhouette close to where the waves are caressing the shore every few seconds. I think it's strange that I can already recognize the outline of her body, but it seems that every inch of her is already ingrained into my memory. And God help me if I wasn't doing anything to stop it. I sigh to myself, before making the decision to walk across the short expanse of the beach and stop just behind her.

"Hey. Want some company?" I ask once I reach where she is sitting silently, staring into the vast and endless ocean. I find myself wondering again what she's thinking about. "I don't know, are you still being a dick?"

"I'm sorry. I know. I can come on a bit strong. Forgive me?" I ask smirking and Elena looks up, rolling her eyes and motions to the spot next to her, inviting me to sit down. I give a short grunt as I sit down on the towel Elena has laid out and try to balance my beer so I don't spill it. We sit in a short silence as we both seem to try and find something to say.

"You're really good." I look over to her and raise my eyebrows to question what she means. "At the bass I mean." She clarifies and I nod.

"Aww, that. And here I thought you were about to add a –looking to the end of that good." She puffs out a short laugh and brings her knees up and rests her chin on them. "Are you always this cocky?"

"Normally, but it really comes out when I see a pretty girl." She turns to look at me and even with the dim lighting I can see the glazed over look in her eye signaling she was far from sober. I think it's funny that she seems completely in tune to the world around her; she must be a rare type of classy drunk. I can't help but to think that it seems completely fitting for her.

The air around us feels different as we continue to stare into one another's eyes and I begin to shift uncomfortably under her gaze. Her easy grin soon turns to a scowl and I feel a bit of whiplash from her change in emotions. "Don't say stuff like that." She mumbles and I scoff indignantly.

"Say stuff like what?"

"It really comes out when I see a pretty girl," she mocks in a low attempt at a man's voice, "really it just makes you sound like a prick."

"Okay, then what would you like me to say?" she turns to look at me again and we get caught in another staring contest when Elena leans towards me and closes the distance between us and tries to kiss me. She ends up missing and falling over into my neck, making her laugh uncontrollably as she falls back onto the sand. I continue to sit facing the water as she rolls with unrestrained laugher on the ground. I take another swig of my beer before looking over at her.

"Alright, lightweight time to get you home."

"No!" she exclaims shaking her head back and forth comically her eyes wide. "Home is the last place I want to go." She lies down on the sand and looks up at the moon and turns her head towards me. I ease myself back down on the sand and look down at her. She was becoming more of a mystery by the minute.

"Home just hasn't been the same since…" she stops letting her sentence die before speaking again. "Do you think it's crazy that I find the possibility of having to face the reality of my parents absolutely terrifying?"

"No, I don't think you're crazy. Everybody finds something about their parents unbearable." Elena turns her head back towards the sky, like she can find all of the answers to her questions there. I realize that I want to pick her brain and find out all of the secrets to her soul that she's eluding me from with vague answers.

"That's not quite what I meant." She says drowsily.

"Then what did you mean?" I hear no reply for a moment and look over to where she is lying down. "Elena?" I question, before discovering that she'd passed out. I laugh a bit, thinking this is only typical of how my night should go. I hadn't had this much bad luck with a girl in a long time.

I watch her sleep for awhile, contemplating what I should do, before standing up to walk away. As I'd thought earlier, she still wasn't my problem. I barely knew the girl. Yet, I couldn't very well leave her lying on the beach where anyone could find her. Not that I thought anything bad would happen to her; Chincoteague was a pretty safe place. Still, you never knew what was lurking in the dark.

Hanging my shoulder and sighing I walk back over to her passed out form and pick her up, throwing her over my shoulder. I'm surprised at how light she is, I'm barely breaking a sweat carrying her through the sand. I walk back through the bar and tell the bartender that I'm taking her home with me so if her Aunt comes looking for her, she'll know where to look.

I make the short trek from the beach to the boarding house, struggling a bit towards the end and walk into my bedroom, where I proceed to lay her down on the bed, covering her with a blanket. I go to the bathroom and brush my teeth before plopping into bed beside Elena, where she's still sleeping soundly.

I can't help but to stare at her for awhile, noting how beautiful she is. Sure, I'd noticed earlier at the bar, but now her face held peacefulness to it that I found intriguing. Before long I'd fallen asleep myself, my last image being of Elena Gilbert.

_**Elena**_

I wake up disoriented and confused the next morning, wondering how much I'd drank the night before, already knowing it had to have been a lot due to the severe case of dry mouth I was suffering from now. I open one eye only, knowing the sun is sure to hurt like hell, when I discover there is little light coming in through the window.

_That's strange. _I think. My windows were huge in my room at the beach house and always ended up being a pain in the ass with hangovers. I open the other eye and look around when panic sets in as I take in my surroundings. This isn't my room. Actually I have no idea where the hell I am.

I sit up in the bed quickly, finding that was a mistake when my head starts spinning and I plop back down onto the bed groaning. _Honestly, how much had I had to drink? _I gasp when the thought runs through my mind that I was in a strange room and quickly feel down my body to make sure I was clothed. Sighing in relief when I find my shorts and top where they should be, I slowly lift myself from my lying position to get a better look of where I am.

I look around the room, noting how big it was at first before tuning into the smaller details. I notice that overall the room is mostly bare, it looked lived in, but only some of the time. The dresser had a t-shirt hanging out of one of the drawers and there was a towel lying on the floor. I look over to the corner and see guitars sitting on stands in a cluster. When I see the bass sitting towards the front I gasp…no, surely not.

"Good morning sleeping beauty." I turn quickly towards the silky smooth voice that I could already recognize as Damon Salvatore's. I groan at having moved too fast and he ticks his tongue at me.

"Elena Elena, maybe you need to just stick to wine coolers instead of the heavier stuff." I glare at him and look down to the hand that is offering me an aspirin and water. I take the aspirin and gulp the water down greedily.

"What the hell Damon? Why am I here?"

He feigns shock for a moment, holding a hand over his heart. "Elena! You mean to tell me you don't remember our wonderful night together? And here I thought we'd really connected." I scowl again and can't help but to think to myself that this man was going to give me early onset wrinkles.

"Must not have been that memorable. You must have not been up to par." I smirk and he narrows his eyes at me. "Besides, what night together?" I tell him wryly, "There was no night together. At least there better have not been a night together!"

He rolls his eyes and sits down on the bed close to me. I make a point to scoot away from him and hold up my hands when he looks at me pointedly. "Personal space." I mutter. He rolls his eyes again and I cross my arms over my chest and look away. I mean I had my reasons. I barely knew the guy.

"Look Elena, there was no night _together._ I won't lie I did sleep in the bed with you, but I didn't just want to leave you on the couch and I'm not giving up this comfortable bed. And for your information, had we had a "night" together as you call it, you would most defiantly remember it."

Now it's my turn to roll my eyes, his arrogance was going to make my eyes fall out of their sockets. "Why was I here to take away your bed in the first place Damon? I don't really remember ever agreeing to go home with you last night."

"You mean you don't remember talking to me on the beach?" I search in my memory when it suddenly hits me and I let out an "Oh" like I've been punched in the stomach. Now I remember making my way out onto the beach, listening to the soulful sound of Lexi's voice through the speakers, singing out Ella Fitzgerald and other Belles of Jazz, giving me a maudlin background to my self- depriving thoughts. Soon after the music stopped, Damon had come down and joined me on the beach, listening as I droned on about my problems. I guess I passed out somewhere in there.

"So you just decided to bring me home with you?" he shrugs his shoulders.

"I couldn't very well just leave you passed out on the beach and your Aunt and friend were nowhere to be found, so I just made the executive decision to bring you here."

I hand the glass of water back to him. "Well I guess I should thank you-"

"That's usually how this goes."

"I wasn't finished. I should thank you, but I won't because I knew you would ruin it with a smart ass comment like that." I sneer and pull myself from the confines of his bed and pull my hair on top of my head with a pen that I find on his bedside table. I walk slowly across the room, finding that too much movement gave me all of coordination of new born deer.

"What?! You barely know me."He says indignantly and I roll my eyes at him as I walk past him and out into the hallway, discovering that wherever I was, was huge. I look both ways down the hallway and try to decipher what my best route to the stairs would be. Without my GPS to guide me I was completely out of tune with directions, so I turn back towards him and hold up my arms.

"It doesn't matter if I know you. I know your type. Kitchen?" He sighs and points down the hallway to the left. "Down the stairs and to the right." I nod and walk the way he pointed as he follows me.

"You know you could be a little more grateful. And what exactly is my "type"." I huff and I give him a small smile. "I already told you, I would thank you, but I know you would ruin it. Anyways you haven't made me breakfast yet and that is defiantly what would rend a thank you from me."

He cocks his eyebrow and smirks. "Then breakfast it is." We walk the rest of the way to the kitchen, where we find Caroline sitting on the counter, getting fed strawberries by her British invasion.

"Caroline?!" she turns her head quickly to look at me, her eyes wide before she rolls them and snarls her nose at me. "God Elena, you sounded just like Mom just now. Could your voice be anymore shrill?"

"I'm sorry Caroline. It's just that, when I wake up in a strange guys bed, no offense," I look to Damon, he holds up his hands and tells me none taken, "because my supposed best friend left me hanging to get her bang on, I get a little upset."

"Oh, Elena quit being so prudish. As if you wouldn't have left me had you found your own lay last night?" I sigh and hang my head, knowing she's probably right anyway. Caroline goes back to giggling and kissing Klaus. I put my elbows on the counter and watch as Damon pulls out a frying pan to make my scrambled eggs.

I wonder why I'm being so absolutely horrible to this guy. It's not like he did anything wrong. At least he didn't leave me to wake up on a beach hung-over, which would have more than likely caused me to panic. Not that I haven't woken up in stranger places before.

"So you never did answer my question." I look up at Damon, every blue eyed bit of him, questioningly. "What?"

"What type I am, Elena." I scoff and lean in closer to him over the counter.

"Arrogant, self centered, conceited, egotistical…really I could go on for days." He smirks and rolls his eyes, not seeming offended by my assessment of him at all, which only served to prove my point even more. Shaking my head, I catch the time on the clock on the stove and gasp, it was already ten thirty. Oh god, my parents were going to kill us. "Caroline! We have to go!"

"What?" she asks as I pull her off the counter and away from Klaus while pulling her towards the door. "It's ten thirty. My parents are sure to be up and wondering where we've run off to."

"Oh shit!" she exclaims before running back to Klaus and placing one last kiss on his lips and steals a strawberry before following me out the door.

"What about your breakfast? How am I ever going to get a thank you out of you?" Damon questions amused as he watches me scramble towards the front door, not even for sure where I'm going.

I spare one last glance his way and reply, "You'll find a way. I'm sure of it." I can hear him laughing as I walk out the door and can't ignore the smirk that's making its way onto my own face as well.

….

My parents have always thought they were more important than they actually are. They are the kind of people that have brunch with mimosas and quiche and sit and gossip over small talk like were from the fucking Upper East Side or something. But, whether we weren't important enough or not, my parents hosted them, often and had obviously decided to do so on this particular wonderful first day of summer, which had already turned out so _amazing_ for me. I roll my eyes internally, yeah right.

After discovering someone had locked the window to my room from the inside, Caroline and I walk in the back door that leads to the kitchen hoping to maybe avoid the awkward glances that I was sure to get from my father and mother as they read the morning paper in the living room. However, it turned out that we should have gone through the front door, when our arrival attracts the attention of several eyes looking up from their brunch plates, including the eyes of Matt Donovan, mouth half full of quiche.

My eyes roam over the entire Donovan family as I feel the weight of my parent's disapproval settle over the awkward silence that has just reared its ugly head. I take a deep breath in and close my eyes, hoping and failing to come up with a lie that's going to get us out of this one, when my mother speaks up.

"Well, glad to see you girls are back from the beach. We've decided to have brunch if you would like to join us after freshening up a bit." I look into her angry eyes and gulp, before mumbling a yes Ma'am, and continue my walk of shame up the stairs to mine and Caroline's bedroom.

I groan and flop onto my bed when Caroline shuts the door. Caroline joins me on my bed and wraps her arm around my shoulders. "It could have been worse Elena."

"Oh yeah? Could it have? There's no telling what Matt has told them, they probably know I've lied about still being with him now. God! Why can't they ever just let me live, for once?" I groan before plopping down on my bed and look up at the ceiling with my hands crossed over my stomach. "Damon didn't even get to finish making me breakfast."

"Ohh! So give me all of the dirty deets." I laugh and sit up on the bed, prepared to tell Caroline there was nothing to tell when Jenna comes walking in the door. "Where the hell have you two been? Elena your mother has been freaking out!"

"Well Jenna, if someone wouldn't have snuck off with her boy toy then I wouldn't have gotten drunk and ended up in Damon Salvatore's bed." Jenna gasps and sits down on the bed, not being able to hide the school girl light in her eyes.

"Elena Gilbert! I can't say that I'm not disappointed but…how was he? I know it had to have been amazing, the man's practically sex on a stick." I roll my eyes and prepare to tell them both that there was nothing to talk about but stop when Mom appears in the doorway and clears her throat.

"Girls. Could you give my daughter and I a minute alone please." The laughter and gossip soon dies in the room with my mother's arrival and Caroline and Jenna immediately avert her gaze and rush to leave the room.

"Yes ma'am." Caroline replies silently, giving me a sorry look as she walks out of the door. Jenna stops in front of her sister and gives her a 'go easy on her' look before walking out the door as well, closing it behind her.

Mom walks over to my large windows that over look the ocean and stares out of them for awhile, not speaking, making me even more worried about what's about to come out of her mouth. For as long as I have been on this earth, Miranda Gilbert has controlled my life. I realize that parents are supposed to tell their children what to do, to certain extents. My parent's rules, however, have always been more extreme than others. I was told what to wear, how to spend my time and who to spend it with. And really I was getting sick and tired.

My parents never allowed me to be myself or do what I want. So what if I had a little too much fun sometimes? It's not like I was doing anything different from every other teenager out there. But of course, I had to remember that I had an image to uphold.

"Elena, I thought we had an understanding."

"Mom I-"she silences me with the lifting of her hand behind her, still not looking my way and continuing to look out the window.

"Now I understood," she begins, "that you were going to do better. That all of this partying and drinking and coming home at three A.M. were going to stop. Though I suppose you did me one better this time, you didn't come home at all."

"Mom I-"she turns towards me interrupting again.

"Hush Elena. Now I have a few choices here. I can ground you and not let you away from this house for the whole summer. Or-"I interrupt her furious.

"But Mom that's not-"she holds up that iron hand again and damn it if I don't shut up. "Or, I can trust you, this one last time and you can promise me that what happened here today will not occur again. How do you think Matt feels knowing his girlfriend was out all night?" I gasp, had Matt not told them?

Mom takes my gasp of surprise the wrong way, "Oh, Elena surely you know there's no way in hell he believed that you and Caroline took a trip down to the beach this morning. So it looks like there are some serious messes that you have here to clean up." She pauses, "And I expect you to start mopping, that is if I don't ground you."

I nod my head and look up solemnly to her, "Fine I'll do better Mom." I reply quietly, not really letting our eyes meet. If there is one thing I've learned is to never look her in the eyes. Not when she's like this.

She purses her lips at me and nods to me as well, "I'm glad to hear it." She walks out of the room, closing the door behind her finally leaving me alone once again.

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding in and find my way over to the window seat to watch the world go by for a bit. When had everything in my life become so complicated? It seemed like any little decision I made had the ability to affect millions of other aspects in my life, whether they were related or not. It just wasn't fair that so much had to be riding on my shoulders. Why did I have to be the picture perfect daughter? Dating the right boy, wearing the right clothes, having the right interests.

Where did the real Elena ever get to come out in the middle of all of that? And I knew the answer was simple. I didn't. My real personality, the sarcastic smart ass within me never got to be released from its confines within my mind. At times, I almost felt like I was going to explode from the thoughts in my head that I could never voice for fear of embarrassing mother. Not to mention, most of the time, Matt didn't find it very funny when I made a passing comment about him or another person, even if I meant it jokingly.

It was almost nice getting to spend time with Damon. When I threw him sarcasm he tossed it right back in my face like it wasn't anything. I found it almost refreshing to not have a guy just roll his eyes at something undeniably witty I said. Like Matt did for instance.

But even though I felt just a smidgen of something for Damon, it didn't matter, because I was going to have to make up with Matt and just suck it up. I was already disappointing my mother by keeping Dad's secret from her, although she didn't know about it. That didn't make me feel any less guilty about it. I knew if I wanted to ease my conscience at all then I had absolutely had to do everything in my power to please my mother. If that meant dating Matt, then so be it. It was a sacrifice I had to be willing to make.

No matter what I might feel or not feel for Damon.


	6. Chapter 5: Trouble

_Okay here is the next update! Sorry it took me so long! Haha! I just got a little distracted by school about to start and everything, but now that I'm in school, I'll be on a bit of schedule, giving me more of a routine to my writing! Anyway, enough of my excuses, enjoy! _

_-Katherine_

_**Trouble**_

_**Trouble, trouble, trouble**_

_**Feels like every time I get back on my feet,**_

_**She comes around and knock me down again**_

_**-Ray LaMontagne, Trouble**_

_**Damon**_

She finds ways of creeping in my mind, finding those trapped doors that I don't allow myself to think about anymore. Even though I don't invite her there, she introduces herself, bright-faced and shining when I have a moment to spare. I try, I really do, to have successful days and nights, but so far I've had no such luck in even attempting to get anything done. All I can think about is Elena, fucking, Gilbert. Which is ridiculous really, because I have never allowed a girl to turn my mind into absolute mush the way she has so unflinchingly achieved, at least not without putting out first.

If I allow myself to think about it, (which I don't like to do), Katherine had the same effect on me, which gives me every right to start running for the hills at this very second. I shouldn't be getting myself into a tangle of lust and passion that I will no doubt regret later on. Because when everything is said and done, I'm better off not getting involved at all. No matter how killer Elena Gilbert's curves are.

But God, she's just…there wasn't a way that I've found yet to fully describe her. Honestly I had yet to discover why I found myself so attracted to her. She hadn't exactly been overly nice to me. Still, that's probably what made her so great. I had always been attracted to sarcasm. And beauty, and I'll be damned if she wasn't succeeding in that department. I know who she is now that I've been given time to really think about it. There's no way in hell that she'll come back looking for me, unless she's planning on slumming it for the summer. Girls with trust funds don't exactly come knocking on guy like me's doors. Even if she did come back, I'm not sure I want that on my tail. The last thing I needed were her angry parents coming knocking on my door.

For all of the reasons that we were wrong for each other, you would think that the last thing on my mind would be her waiting for me at the front door, but God if that fantasy hadn't been on repeat in my mind for the last two days. Elena hadn't showed back up at _The Shack_ since her amusing escape and I could only assume that she didn't sneak her way back into her room as effectively as she'd hoped. That or she didn't plan on returning anyway.

"What's got you so lost in thought?" asks Alaric as he comes thundering down from upstairs with Jenna in tow. Those two made me sick; I really just want them to admit how much they wanted to be with the other and just get it all over with. It was getting borderline annoying.

"Nothing." I mumble. He chuckles, because he knows exactly what's wrong, I'd drunkenly told him all of my thoughts a night ago. And while I knew I would regret my confession as soon as it left my lips, it had felt good to tell someone about my thoughts about Elena. "It couldn't be, I dunno, a girl could it?" he giggles some more like a little school girl, pretending to try and keep his laughter in check. He really thinks he's fucking cute.

Jenna sorts a laugh of her own, "Damon's in cahoots over a girl? This has to be unheard of; I honestly never thought I would see the day. How's it feel Salvatore? You're finally the one waiting on the phone call."

I scowl at her, wanting the annoying red head out of my way, before replying, "I am not in "cahoots", okay. I don't pine over girls. I have one night stands, not steady dates, so I don't even know what Ric's talking about. But if we're talking about love lives, why don't we just talk about you guys." I smirk, knowing I'll be alone once again before too long.

Jenna sticks her tongue out at me and grabs Ric's hand pulling him away from where I'm proudly brooding in the living room. "Oh come on! I was really feeling like a trip down memory lane!" I shout after them, chuckling at Jenna's almost instantaneous retreat. Some things just never did change. The music from the hallway on the second floor travels down to my ears and I allow myself a moment to sit and think. Slumping back into the couch, I breathe out a sigh. At least I was alone again.

"What's got you so grumpy?" asks Lexi as she walks into the living room, plopping down onto the couch next to me. I groan and stand up quickly, mumbling that I'm going to the beach. She looks at me like I'm crazy and I just avoid her gaze. I wanted everyone to stop noticing my mood and leave me the hell alone. Was that too much to ask?

Besides, I wasn't grumpy.

…..

I walk down to the beach, knowing that to be the only place where I am guaranteed a moments peace. I find the secluded spot keeping me hidden by a sand dune and grass that I usually inhabit and sit down, trying to get my thoughts to focus on the sound of the waves instead of the dark haired beauty that seemed to control my mind these days.

I find myself finally distracted by a guy playing with his golden retriever as he throws a football into the ocean that the dog quickly retrieves and returns back to him willingly, all trained, tail wagging. This was the kind of guy he could really see Elena Gilbert with. The all blonde American guy with no broody past that just threw footballs around with his all-star arm for his trained golden retriever named Lucky. Not the guy who played guitar in a band with no trust fund attached to his name.

Then again I was probably just being judgmental; I have always had a problem with judging a book by its cover. Jenna wasn't superficial like that, and she was Elena's Aunt, that had to count for something. Still, that didn't mean that Elena wouldn't respect her parents' wishes, no doubt ensuring that she wouldn't show up again at my door anytime soon. I felt pathetic for even wanting her to imagine being with me. I wonder what having her around would be like. Certainly interesting enough. She'd kept me on my toes the entire small time she spent with me.

My thoughts are interrupted when I hear my name and see my inner turmoil trudging slowly through the sand towards me. She waves to the golden retriever guy, no doubt knowing him. I should have guessed, but still walks towards me smiling until she reaches where I'm sitting.

"Hey." Elena greets me and I look up to her, my eyes squinting in the sunlight. I inwardly wince when the first thought fleeting across my mind is the beauty that radiates from her. She is even more glorious in the sunlight. The light reflects off of her dark hair, giving it a shine that makes me feel like I'm in the middle of a damn Herbal Essence commercial. My eyes scan her long tan legs that seem to stretch for miles until they reach the gentle curve of her thigh that is hidden midway by a pair of blue jean shorts. When my eyes reach her torso my eyes are filled with dark purple tank top that she's wearing over her bathing suit and finally reach her face and notice her quizzical face knowing she must be wondering if I'm ever going to acknowledge her. I clear my throat, God I was so screwed.

"Hi." I wonder how she found me here. No one usually ever notices me in my hiding spot, unless they're looking for me. I sit and stare up at her for a while longer; creating a spread out silence that I can tell is starting to make her feel uncomfortable.

"Well I didn't prepare for this to be awkward." She says sarcastically and I roll my eyes as she plops down next to me in the sand like I invited her. "Join me please." I say sarcastically and she just looks at me scoldingly, making me roll my eyes. I huff out a sigh, looks like my plan to 'get over this quick' wasn't going to work. Especially if she kept up these random appearances, though I'm not really complaining. "This isn't awkward, this is just me trying to figure out why you're stalking me and running into me on the beach. Inviting yourself to sit down next to me no less. "

"I am not stalking you! And if you don't want me here then I'll leave." she replies indignantly standing to walk away, when I grab her arm.

"Hey, I'm not judging, it happens all the time. Girls meet me and they just want more." I say, gesturing to myself and waggling my eyebrows suggestively, showing her that I was only joking. She huffs and throws herself back down on the ground next to me.

"And to think I was coming over here to apologize for the other day. I didn't know you were going to be such an ass hat or I wouldn't have." She says dryly.

"And just what do you have to apologize for?" she turns to look at me and shrugs her shoulders, "For running out on you the other morning. I panicked when I thought about my parents and with good reason; they were sitting waiting on me when I got home."

"Ouch."

"Yeah. Not to mention they were having brunch with the ex-boyfriend. Although he didn't tell them that we'd broken up and neither have I so, they don't really know any different."

"Double ouch." I reply and furrow my eyes together, "Brunch? Just exactly how rich are you Gilbert?" Elena just rolls her eyes again, laughing a little. I catch myself thinking how much I like that she doesn't seem like the typical little rich girl that I ran into from time to time. Elena didn't seem spoiled or didn't seem to think of herself on a pedestal. She was just down to earth. Mellow.

"Don't get me started on the damn brunches." She deadpans, shaking her head and heaving a big sigh, making me laugh and only proving my previous thoughts further. "My parents drive me absolutely crazy with unnecessary meal times."

"Brunch isn't necessarily unnecessary."

Elena giggles, making me smile, it sounded like bells when she did that, "Yeah, but breakfast is better." She stops for a minute, looking at me. "I'm sorry for running out on you again. Also I never really told you thank you for not leaving me alone on the beach the other night so, consider this your official thanks."

"Hey, I never made you breakfast so I never earned it." I smirk, finding that I like the way she smiles at me and begin to wonder if anyone else is rewarded with that smile.

"This is true. I rebuke my thanks until further notice." I nod my head in agreement.

"Elena!" We both turn our heads towards the sound of her name and I watch as her eyes widen in panic at the sound of the male voice searching for her.

She turns towards me and clutches my biceps, looking desperately at me. "Hide me. Please." She begs and I search around frantically as I see the guy with sandy brown hair approaching the sand dune, he's obviously spotted us or me at least. I grab her, flipping her underneath me and straddle her, the only thing I can think of to hide her completely in the moment.

She looks at me with panicked wide eyes that bore anger into mine, but as she hears the guy's footsteps approach close to where we are hidden, she takes my face and pushes it into her own in the lamest excuse of a kiss I've ever seen. I sat with my lips on top of her own, not moving them, only being used as a shield to hide her face from no-name. She continued to hold my face with her own until she heard the guys footsteps recede and call her name from another place on the beach.

She pushes my face away and I remain on top of her my smirk firmly in place. "Now Elena," I chastise, "if you wanted to kiss me all you had to do was ask. It really doesn't take all of these dramatics with me. I'm caveman simple."

"Ughh" she scoffs, pushing me off of her as I crash in the sand, laughing at her. "You are so disgusting. And that wasn't a kiss."

"I would hope not. You, my friend, are a terrible kisser if it was."

"I am _not _a terrible kisser." I smirk. "Care to prove it to me?"

She looks up to the sky and shakes her head, a smile falling unwillingly on her lips. "So, are you going to explain what just happened or am I going to have to go Nancy Drew on the situation? Because I can, I read all the books as a kid."

Elena scrunches up her face and laughs, "Nancy Drew? Really? Aren't those books kind of girly? Why didn't you just read the Hardy Boys?"

I freeze, realizing I'd just let one of my well best kept secrets out. I knew this girl wasn't good for me. "This isn't my interrogation Gilbert, now spill. What was that?" she sighs, "Okay, fine. That's the ex-boyfriend I was talking about, Matt. I don't know why he's looking for me, but I'm sure it's for another one of my parents planned dates for us that I just really do not want to participate in."

"Ahh," I say nodding my head, straightening up from my lying down position on the sand, "so why doesn't the kid just move on. _He _at least knows you're broken up right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Well no one else knows so I was just making sure."

"Everyone else knows, it's just my parents that are in the dark."

"Because…"

"Because…because it's easier that way. What's with all of the questions anyway?" she asks, clearly frustrated with my constant queries about her life. Honestly I couldn't really answer her. I just wanted to know more about her for some reason. If she was all I was going to think about, I should at least get to know what makes her tick.

I hold out my hands, trying to think of any answer that might sedate her for the time being. "Hey, I'm just trying to get to know my bedmate a little bit better."

"Just because we slept in the bed together one time, does not mean we are now "bedmates"."

"If you say so Gilbert."

We fall into a quiet silence that seems almost natural for a moment. I find it strange that I'm able to achieve it with her, I rarely find comfortable silence within myself, let alone around others, but with her it's come natural. Strange. I listen to the sea gulls sing and enjoy the gentle sea breeze that is kissing my skin. I find myself cherishing it, knowing it can't last for much longer. Someone's going to ruin this. I just know they will.

"So Nancy Drew?" I told you. Silence broken. But as a grin spreads across my face, I find that I don't really mind. "I never should have let that slip." I say, trying to hold in my laugh by poking the inside of my cheek with my tongue. She laughs back at me and I bask in the way the sunlight has managed to illuminate behind her, making her look like she radiates beams that are shooting right into me.

She holds my gaze and pulls her saddle bag off of her shoulders, laying it down beside her. She opens her mouth, like she's about to say something and then tilts her head to the side. "Is it okay if I stay here awhile? With you? I promise to not bring up Nancy Drew again."

I smile and nod and she returns both gestures before pulling out a towel and lying down on the sand beside me, warmth radiating from her like my own personal sunshine for the rest of the afternoon.

_**Elena**_

My morning started off as normal as usual. Caroline jumping on my bed, begging me to go down to the beach with her, keeping away from my Dad, and above all avoiding my mother, who was still not over her anger at me coming home the other morning.

Since that long day of spending time with my family and the other Mystic Fall's group, things between my family and I had been tense. Mom and I avoided each other at all costs, keeping our contact simply to small insignificant questions as we passed each other in the hallway. With Dad's guilt keeping him from really saying anything to me as well, I felt suddenly lonely in the large beach house that used to feel so full of life in the summers.

Jenna had taken to spending her days with her long lost "friend" Alaric, while Caroline found every excuse she could to make her way back over to see Klaus. She'd asked me to come with her every time she left for _The Shack_, but something had kept me from allowing myself to go back.

If I was being honest, I knew why; Damon. Something about him had kept my thoughts preoccupied for the past few days, making me anxious to see him again. I found that I had feelings for him somewhat, not that anything spectacular had occurred between us, but I could not deny that something had happened between us. Miniscule or not.

Caroline and I ate breakfast and made our way down to the beach lying down on our towels, talking about her new found relationship with Klaus, when Tyler Lockwood came up to us and asked if we wanted to join in a beach volleyball game. We agreed and I was perfectly fine with our decision, until we arrived at the net…with Matt on the other side. I gave him a rueful smile, which he surprisingly returned. I figured he would be furious with me, but it looked like the opposite.

We played volleyball for a while, which kept any of us from having to talk and when the game ended I walked away as quickly as I could. Thinking that I was safe from Matt's ensuing lecture that I just knew was coming my way. I really thought he hadn't seen me, but had been highly mistaken when he began to follow me down the beach. Which is what made me sigh in relief when I saw Damon.

The liberation of escaping from Matt was more than I could explain. I'd simply been walking along the beach, trying in vain to clear my thoughts of the one and only Damon Salvatore, when he spotted me and started calling out my name. I pretended to not hear him and kept on walking and he'd eventually left me alone. I guess he decided he'd given me enough of the privacy I craved and had come looking for me. If Damon hadn't have been here, I don't know what I would have done. Dealing with Matt is not something I'm quite ready for yet.

After our faux pa kiss, Damon and I lie on the beach and talk for hours. I haven't had this with someone in such a long time. Matt and I used to be able to talk about anything. Our dreams, our futures, our goals. But then he started to combine my dreams with his own, talking about our futures as just that, _our_ future. I'm still young and I don't want to be tied down yet and the thought of marrying Matt so soon after high school sounds like the worst nightmare that I could ever dream up. I've always been a free spirit; the last thing I wanted was my wings clipped. But there Matt sat, clippers in hand, chipping away at the only things that had ever made me free.

Sitting with Damon though, I didn't feel that. I felt _relief _almost from the suffocation that had become my everyday life. Nothing was simple anymore and everything was overwrought with complications. But with Damon, all that fluttered away, and suddenly those clippers were thrown into the ocean along with Matt's promise ring that I promptly threw away during a temper tantrum the night before.

I loved sitting here with Damon, joking and laughing, taking his sarcasm piece by piece. I almost liked how arrogant he was, almost. And while cockiness was usually a turn off, I began to see it as a part of him, almost like a cover up of something else, but still, I feel like it would be there no matter what layers of paint were pulled away from the surface.

I laugh as he tells me about being chased down this very beach as a teenager by Alaric for stealing his stash of booze from his secret hiding spot. "Did he catch you?"

He makes a psssh face, as if to say "as if", but then breaks out into a smile laughing, "Of course he caught me, I was sloshed. Completely gone, it was the first time I'd ever had hard liquor. I could barely feel the bruises he gave me for that one until I woke up the next morning." He laughs a little to himself, looking off in the distance. "I actually told my mother that I thought I had the stomach virus and she just believed me. I guess. That or she didn't comment on it."

I laugh again and I catch him watching and smiling at me. I clear my throat trying to remember the last time I laughed this much. "So, where is this super secret booze stash huh? I might need a pick me up one of these days."

"I don't know. Ric might catch you."

"Ah, but see that's the beauty of it, he won't know I know about his hiding place. So he'll just blame you." I joke and Damon gives me an indignant look.

"Well, I guess you've just got it all planned out then." I smirk at him coyly and he rolls his eyes at me sitting up on his beach towel, looking through the grass behind us. I'm not going to lie, I looked at his butt, but really, it was just right there in my face, how could I resist? He sits back up on his calves, holding a dusty bottle of Jack Daniels and I nod my head in acceptance. "Ahh, the man has good hiding spots and good taste then."

"Eh, mediocre at best but it'll do the trick. "

I find myself laughing again as he twists the cap, taking a swig straight from the bottle. He holds out the bottle to me with his eyebrows raised, offering me some of the brown liquid. I take the bottle willingly, letting the Jack burn down my throat, relishing in the sting that it leaves in its wake. I hand the him back the bottle as I swallow, letting my head fall back into the sand and find a round fluffy cloud to focus on.

He follows suit, snuggling into the sand with his hands crossed over his stomach. "What are we looking for?" he asks me and I continue to look at the sky, realizing that the question meant more to me than he probably realizes. I was looking for everything, I was looking for nothing, and I was the lost girl just looking for herself. I have spent many days exactly like this. Looking into the sky and wondering if it really was the limit. If I could actually expect to get anything out of life that I wanted. My parents had always told me that, but really, their aspirations were limited. The sky in my parent's world had a ceiling, which ended where their expectations began and my dreams ended. But god if I let myself think such depressing thoughts for the rest of my life, I'd go crazy.

"Nothing in particular. The clouds I suppose." I focus back on my fluffy cloud and let myself drown in the simplicity of it. It had no worries, no cares. That white puff of dust just existed, allowing poor saps like me to enjoy them in the summer breeze.

"Well there's not much to look at up there Elena." He deadpans and I smile. Little did he know I was finding all of the answers I needed right there in the afternoon sky. Simplicity is what I needed, just like that lucky cloud floating aimlessly through space. I wanted to look at Damon as my own personal cloud. He was my simplicity. I hadn't found it this easy to just exist around someone in a long time. I know the reasons to not chase after Damon this summer should defer me from the feelings I have stirring within me right now, but really, I couldn't find it in me to care.

"I guess you're right." He huffs a laugh and I notice that the sky has started to gain a red tint to it that signals the suns inevitable exit, ending the day. I'm shocked, not having grasped how much time had passed that we'd sat here talking. I feel a sinking feeling in my stomach and realize I don't want to leave Damon's company. He makes me feel like maybe things in my life could be different. It's so refreshing to find someone that I could talk about anything with. Most of my beliefs and interests were his as well. It was amazing to talk to someone who didn't have those damn small town values that I'd had to listen to for the majority of my life. If anything, it made me like him all the more.

"The suns starting to go down." I observe out loud to him and he turns his head to look at me. "I have to get to _The Shack_ soon." He tells me and my heart drops a little at his words. I suppose I can't expect him to have the same feelings that are undoubtedly moving within me. I move to get up from ground and open my mouth to tell him goodbye and tense when he suddenly grabs my arm.

"Come with me tonight?" I relax and smile at him simply, relief flooding through me, I nod my head in agreement. He gives me a small smile back and lies back down on the sand while I follow suit. We fall back into our comfortable silence, staring at the sky. He takes another swig of the alcohol and I smile and can't help but notice how sore my cheeks are from doing so all afternoon.


	7. Chapter 7: In the Still of the Night

_**In the still of the night, **_

_**I held you, held you tight…**_

_**I remember that night in May, **_

_**The stars were bright above…**_

_**-"In the Still of the Night" The Five Satins**_

_**Elena **_

We find our way to _The Shack _soon after daylight recedes leaving a slight chill to the air in its departure. Damon excuses himself after buying me a beer and I hold it up to him in salute as he walks away towards the stage. I wonder for a moment what songs the band will play tonight, hoping for something tropical and exotic sounding. I couldn't stand anymore maudlin thoughts, gladly accepting anything as a distraction. And what better form of distraction could you find than a song.

Lexi introduces the band and the beginning chord of a beach boy's song begins and a grin crawls its way onto my face, _Wouldn't It Be Nice _has always been one of my personal favorites. I let Lexi's voice surround me; somehow she makes the song sound better than Brian Wilson ever has. With the perfect combination of soul and harmony she makes the song her own. I close my eyes and let myself get lost in the sounds of summer, finally allowing the some of my first happy thoughts to flow since I'd been here in Chincoteague.

I sit in silence and just let the band's music make love to my ears, enjoying the soft harmony each of the voices make together as they move from one song to the next. My eyes continually find their way to Damon as I watch his fingers glide over the bass. He seems lost in a trance that no one will be able to bring him out of and for a fleeting moment I'm jealous. I haven't gotten that lost in a song for as long as I could remember. When I was younger, piano was my life. There wasn't a day I didn't come home from school and go straight to those eighty-eight keys. As I got older, different instruments started making their way into my life as well, like the guitar and the ukulele, but my love for the ivories has never faded. Now music just didn't seem to help the war anymore, it's truly a sad thing when your passion dies.

My attention goes back to Damon and I watch as every few seconds he adds in a vocal or two, giving the songs the depth they truly deserve. I find peacefulness in watching him engrossed so deeply in his obsession. I can tell in the way he throws himself so fully into his playing that music is something he thrives in.

It's strange; I've never met someone who found music as important as I do. Matt asked me once why the hell I couldn't ever just enjoy the silence, always having the radio or iPod headphones in my ears. I'd replied that sometimes that the silence was just too damn loud. He'd given me a funny look and rolled his eyes, laughing away the monstrosity of what I'd just told him, and that was that, he never brought it up again. Somehow, I knew that Damon would understand the concept. He had that dark air around him that something in his past had gone terribly wrong. Strange enough he didn't carry that with a chip on his shoulder like I seemed too constantly.

Regardless of Damon's obvious love of music, I found myself attracted to him in other areas too. I mean don't get me wrong, the man is gorgeous. I don't know if I've ever quiet met anyone with those startling baby blues. However my attraction was more than physical. I've never been around a guy that I could talk so freely with. I haven't spent a carefree afternoon with Matt like I did with Damon today in a long time. These days with Matt, things always felt extremely forced and things were much less strained around him when we were just friends. And sure I had guy friends that I spent a lot of time with and we joked and talked and made a mess. Still, I've never had a guy that I felt like I could kiss and do all of those things with at the same time. It felt like we'd known each other for forever.

"And just what brings you here little lady?" I turn to see a head full of red hair and my Aunts smiling face. I move on my stool to face her fully and lean an elbow against the bar, "I could ask you the same thing." She shrugs her shoulders and concedes and I follow her gaze to where Alaric sits a few feet away behind the bar.

"Ahh, so you're here because of him." I remark knowingly, "What's the story between you two anyway?"

Jenna sighs and I can almost feel her affection for him roll off in waves. "There really isn't that much to tell. We met when we were kids and have always been friends. But one summer we suddenly decided that we were going to be more than friends. God was I head over heels. I woke up every morning that summer and ran straight here. We would sit here at this bar all day long running around on the beach, kissing and laughing. I can't remember ever being that happy.

"I took him home to meet Mom and Dad on the Fourth and I just knew they loved him. He had a good head on his shoulders and he loved history. He charmed your grandparents to no end. But the whole time I kept watching Mom's eyes travel to the tattoo on his arm and then they found out I met him here at this bar and that he was in the band at the time. I kissed him goodnight that night and Mom came up to my room and told me that I was to forget about that boy. Logan Fell was my supposed perfect match. I guess they never saw what an ass-whole he was.

"But still, I listened to Mom and I told Alaric at the end of that summer that I probably wouldn't be able to see him anymore. He was upset, but he understood. And now look at me, I missed out on something great all because I saw how April's parents treated her when she ran off with that guy after high school and I was scared. Now I know for a fact he wouldn't ever even consider being with me, really being with me at least, not after what I did to him. I broke his heart when I told him we couldn't ever really be together. I can't expect that of him now." Jenna's eyes break away from Alaric and she looks at me sadly.

"Aunt Jenna, I think you can expect whatever you want. He's crazy about you. And Grandma and Grandpa are dead, may they rest in peace. So they can't really control that part of you anymore." She gives me a sad smile. "I guess you're right but, I don't know if my guilt will ever let me." My eyes fall behind her when I feel a pair of eyes on me and meet Damon's teal colored stare. Aunt Jenna follows my gaze and smirks at me knowingly. "Well Elena, if there's one thing I can ever give you, is to learn from my mistakes."

I look back to her when she speaks to me, "What do you mean?" I ask innocently enough, though we both know what she's talking about. She smiles and pats me on the knee, "Oh Elena, don't play dumb, that's only for bimbos and politicians." I breathe a laugh and she winks at me before sliding over to the other side of the bar and wraps her arms around Ric from behind. I smile and I just know she's going to get it figured out in the end.

I turn back towards the band when they begin to play _Barbra Ann_ and my mood instantly dampens. I think of Mom and how happy she'd been on our first day here, laughing and singing in the kitchen. Something had happened between then and now and I wonder if my "running around" had anything to do with it. I know that keeping up with my parents expectations would keep everybody happy. But risking my own happiness for the sake of others didn't sound like much a picnic either. Still, it broke my heart to think of mom now, sitting at home, oblivious to the turmoil surrounding her. Keeping Dad's secret came at a cost, but so did telling it. Which is why I'd chosen to keep the key to my father's skeletons safely tucked away, ensuring our family to be kept together for just a while longer.

I feel the tell tale tears making their way through my eyes and quickly stand from the bar, needing to get out here before I become a blubbering mess right here in the middle of _The Shack_. The room that earlier felt large and full of life, now felt small, like the walls were closing in on me and I was the only one left in the room. I grab my bag and my beer and run out from under the lights of the bar and walk aimlessly towards the beach. Finding myself in the same spot I had a few nights before when I came here with Caroline, I stop and pull my towel out my bag and sit down on the sand.

Taking the necessary breaths, I feel myself start to calm down. After a few sniffles the world looks clearer as my tears recede and are soon forgotten. I look down to my bag and see that my things are strewn all over the ground where I carelessly tossed them and proceed to pick them up, returning them to their rightful place. I pick up my journal and brush the sand off of it. Cocking my head to the side, I look at it for awhile. Really, I'm not even sure why I still carry it around with me. The feeling to write hasn't come to me in so long. Nothing inspires me it anymore. The dreams I may have, have seemed to find their way to the wind, being thrown carelessly away with yesterday's top hit, giving me nothing to aspire to; therefore, giving me nothing to write about.

I didn't find hope in writing words about Matt or my life in Mystic Falls because I was writing about the same old same old. If anything ever changed in that little old town, I'm convinced everyone would die of a stroke. They say that tradition is admirable; I find it to be downright boring and repetitious. Why should we be put to sleep by the same functions our forefathers found boring as well? I guess we may be bored out of our minds, but at least we're keeping up appearances.

I open my journal and look back to the stage as they begin a slow _Beach Boy's _tune that I've never heard and find that Damon is singing, a deep gravelly sound that I instantly discover I'm in love with. I marvel at the fact that someone I just met has had such a profound impact on my life and suddenly I find the inspiration I've needed all this time and begin to let my words flow through me, making me worry that I won't get my thoughts down fast enough. Everything I haven't been brave enough lately to confront finally stares at me dead on in ink from the lines of my leather bound journal, taunting me and giving me a form of serenity at the same time. It feels like my title of Atlas has finally been relinquished and I no longer hold the world on my shoulders. I feel weightless, like everything that has ever held me back is suddenly gone and is receding with the tide as I watch it fall away from my feet once more.

I jump when I feel an unexpected hand on my shoulder and relax when I look up into those colbalt eyes that I've been looking into all afternoon. I'd been so submersed in writing that I hadn't heard the band end their set. He holds out another beer, which I take willingly as Damon sits down next to me. I can hear the soft blues they've turned on the radio, an almost direct contrast to what the band had been playing earlier, but I let myself fall into its sad lonesome sound all the same. Damon sits down next to me on my towel and doesn't say a word, looking out into the open ocean and allows me to finish my product of the past few hours.

I lay my pen and book down when I'm finished and let out a long sigh and feel tension leave with it. Stretching my arms over my head, I pull on my muscles to get the stiffness that has built up in them before popping the cap on my beer and lying back on the towel with my elbows propped up. "All done?" He asks and I nod, not wanting to ruin the quietness of this moment. With him my silences don't seem as loud.

He looks back at me when I don't say anything and mirrors me by propping up on his elbows as well. "So, would it be terribly prying for me to ask what you were scribbling so furiously in that thing?"

"It wouldn't." I say and he gives me a pointed look when I don't say anything. I roll my eyes and bite my lip. I don't know if this is something I can really talk about with him, it's a bit heavy for having just met him. "I just don't know if you're ready for that kind of baggage. I mean it's not like I have an absolutely horrible past or something, it's just…" I look back at him and see his looking at me curiously, so I take another swig of beer and prepare to give Damon the down low on the last dreadful six months of my life.

"It's just, what? Elena."

"It's just…I have lived in a cage for my entire life. I've never been given freedom or choices or a chance for that matter to just be me. And somehow, I've found that person, the person I could just be if my parents would let me out from underneath their thumb long enough. I've said time and time again that I will not let them influence the choices that I make anymore and still…they find that one tick within me to get me to do what they want. It doesn't even have to do with their money, it has to do with their expectations or the guilt that they throw my way when I make decision out of line. It's not like I don't love my parents, I do. And I want to make them proud, but most of the time, I don't want the things for myself that _will _make them proud.

"I date Matt, but I'm not happy. I applied to the University of Virginia, their alma mater, but all I want to do is go to NYU. I'm just-I'm stuck you know?"

Damon doesn't speak for awhile and we sit on the beach, the only sound the waves crashing into the shore every few seconds. He turns to me and leans a little closer, "It sounds to me like you're scared." He whispers to me like it's a secret.

I turn my head quickly to look at him and he takes a sip from his beer, holding my gaze the entire time. "What do you mean scared? And how dare you. I just poured my heart out and there you are, making assumptions."

"I'm not making assumptions; I'm just making an observation."

"And you think I'm scared." I ask in the matter of fact way in which he just asked the question. He nods, "Elaborate, please. The suspense is killing me." I say sarcastically.

"Look, it just sounds like to me that you're almost too worried about your parent's approval. And yeah, we all worry about what our folks think of us, hell, most of our goal in life is to become someone that they can be proud of, but you, my friend, seem too scared to be the person you want to be. You're afraid to be your own person and hide in the confines of what your parents say is okay."

"Well your wrong."

"Am I? What's that guy's name again that you haven't told your parents that you broke up with?" I rub my lips together and hold my arms over my chest. He was wrong. Granted, no one really liked to get called out on their shit. I _was_ scared. I didn't want my parents to call me the black sheep of the family. I didn't want to be that daughter that everyone forgets the Gilberts even have because they never speak of her and her accomplishments in life. I've seen it happen first hand to April Forbes and it wasn't pretty. Then again, at least she got out of that damn town and never looked back.

Damon takes in my demeanor and holds his hand out, conceding. "Look, maybe I am wrong. I-"

"No." I stop him, "You are right. I've just- I don't think I've ever thought about it like that before." I look over at him and smile. He returns it and lies down on the towel, looking up at the star-studded sky and ends the subject, just like that, sensing my discomfort at admitting that to him.

"Any particular reason you were sitting out here all by yourself?" I shrug my shoulders, not really sure what to tell him. There was a whole can of worms that could be opened if I went there and I know that I'm just not ready to share that with him yet. Besides, if I tell one person about my father, that would only make me want to tell more. Caroline was the only one that needed to know. "I don't know the need to write just hit me I guess." I lie and he nods.

"And what do you write about?"

"Depends on my mood. I really haven't written in a long time. For the past few months, opening my journal has seemed like such a daunting task and then suddenly…I don't know I was just sitting at that bar and I- I started to think about some things and I just ran out here. Somehow I ended up with a pen in my hand."

"What were you thinking about?"

"Nothing really, I-I uh…" He holds up his hand. "It's okay. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want. Believe me; I of all people understand the things-that-shall-not-be-named."Damon looks towards me and holds his eyes with mine. We share a look and it gives me a feeling in my stomach that I can't quite explain. This is not lust, it's something entirely different.

I smile and bite my lip moving my gaze back to the water, his eyes holding too much of my own feelings in them for me to take much more. I find a distant blob in the ocean and make myself focus on that instead of the full on war raging in my belly. Before long I realize its butterflies, something I haven't felt for someone in such a long time.

I'm suddenly thrown back to Tyler Lockwood's backyard in the ninth grade, when Matt told me under the same moon I lie under now that he wanted to date me. I remember internally squealing and feeling my heart race when he leaned into kiss me. At the time, I didn't know that I could ever want more than that, need more than that. Matt had been my best friend for ages and there was no doubt that I loved him. Hell, I still loved him. To an extent, that is. The love that I felt for him may not be as strong as it once was, but I still felt it. Something like that doesn't go away. However, there was no denying that the butterflies I felt for Damon were indefinitely different.

Damon keeps his eyes on me for a while longer before moving his gaze out to into the vast expanse of blue instead of my now blushing face. He takes a swig of his beer, finishing it off and setting it beside him. He lies back on his back on the towel and looks up to the sky. I see his hand reach out and pat the sand behind my back, motioning me to join him. I lie down as the song on the radio change and I recognize the soft doo-wop that seems to lull me onto my back. I use Damon's arm as my pillow and settle into the sand carefully, not completely comfortable lying in this close of proximity of him. It's not that I don't want to or that I don't trust him. I don't trust myself.

"What do you know about astronomy?"

"Next to nothing. Why? What do you know about astronomy?"

"Damn, I don't know anything either. But we were sitting here looking at the sky so I was hoping you did so maybe you could actually teach me something. Why do I even keep you around Gilbert?"

I roll my eyes and speak in a sarcastic tone. "I dunno, I must be good company."

He laughs, a deep rumbling sound in his chest and we fall again into one of our comfortable silences that I've come to find endearing. I listen to his steady breathing, feeling a sudden wave of sleepiness fall over me. Something about the sound of the waves and being tucked protectively into Damon's side is making my eye lids heavy and a warm comfortable feeling falls over me. I'm kicked out of my reverie; however, when Damon speaks, "Come on, don't fall asleep on me again. You have a bad habit of doing that."

I sigh, a little contentedly, "For my credit, the first time I was drunk. You really can't hold that one against me."

He chuckles, "Well how do you expect me to get to know anything about you if you keep falling asleep and running out on me?" I crane my neck to look at him, "And just what do you want to know about me?" Damon shrugs his shoulders, "I don't know. What's your favorite color?"

"What?" I ask ridiculously loud and he looks down at me and rolls his eyes. "What's your favorite color?" he says again, a bit irritated this time.

"Out of all the questions in the world you could ask me right now, that is the one you choose?"

"Just answer the damn question." He deadpans and I sigh, "Purple, yours?"

"Purple really?"

"You're going to judge me on my color preference?"

"No, it's just I took you for more of like a green kind of girl." I scrunch up my face and shake my head. He could be a bit confusing and frustrating at the same time. "Well I'm not. And you didn't answer my question. What's your favorite color?"

"Well purple obviously."

"You can't do that."

"Do what?"

"You can't have the same answer as me. It's just not the way this works."

"Look, you obviously don't understand how this game works, I ask you your interests and strangely have all of the same ones, it'll just get you in my bed quicker." I scoff and backhand him on the chest. He grabs my hand before I can pull it back and suddenly changes the air around us. "I don't really have a favorite color." He says and I don't really say anything because he's suddenly mesmerized me, by holding my hand to his chest. I look up and he catches his gaze with mine and I swallow thickly, "Although," he begins in a low voice that makes me swoon, "I have to say brown is starting to grow on me." I feel a brush crawl onto my cheeks for the umpteenth time that night.

"Well blue's not so bad either." I say and he gives me his signature smirk that I'm suddenly finding charming instead of annoying like I did in the beginning. I snuggle closer into his chest and Damon tightens his arm around me, still holding my hand to his chest, as I listen to the soft piano along with Otis Redding as he sings quietly of wanting to hold the one he loves in his arms. I find the song ironic and Damon's arm suddenly feels heavy around me. I find the heaviness of his limbs comforting and we simply lie in the silence and listen to the music quietly sing to us.

"Elena?"

"Hm?" I mumble, feeling too relaxed to articulate more than that.

"Do you need to go home?" I shake my head no and continue to lie in the safety of his embrace before allowing the music to lull me to sleep and fall asleep in his arms.

…

The sun stings my eyes as its warm glow rises over long expanse of sea that lies before me. I lift up and see Damon lying beside me, arm still wrapped possessively around my waist. I smile, feeling content with getting to see him sleep. He looks so at ease while he rests, his chest rising and falling with each slow breath he takes in his slumber.

I look at the watch on his left wrist and relax instantly when I see it's only seven. Surely my parents aren't awake yet. My heart sinks when I realize that I won't be able to spend the whole day with Damon today. _If he wants to spend the day with you. _I tell myself it doesn't matter, because I surely won't be able to escape Matt two days in a row. He could be pretty persistent when he set his mind to something and I seemed to be his newest form of concern. It couldn't hurt to talk to him anyway; we needed to discuss why he hadn't told my parents the other morning that we'd broken up when they invited him to brunch.

A squeal erupts from my throat when I suddenly feel myself pulled against a firm chest and find my gaze once again locked with Damon's. "And just where do you think you're going Miss Gilbert?"

I smile and pull up my arms to rest them on his chest, and prop my chin on my arms, "Home. My parents will be waking up soon and I don't think they could take any more of their daughter running around at all times of the night."

"Hmm. Shame, shame, shame Elena Gilbert. What will the town say? Your parents are raising quite the hooligan." I roll my eyes at his sarcastic town and pull myself from his embrace to stand up on the sand, brushing it off my legs. Damon helps me pick up my things and I put them in bag before throwing it over my shoulder. We awkwardly stand together on the sand before I speak, "Well, I guess I'll see you around then?"

He nods and smiles, his eyes crinkling at the corners. I turn to walk away when he pulls me back to him and pecks me on the lips, softly holding my face. He pulls away gently and I stand in shock. I've never felt a peck on the lips so passionate. He smirks and backs away from me, "Just thought you might need something to get you through, until you know, happen to _run _into me again." I smile back at him and I watch for a moment as he walks away down the beach.

I turn back around when I hear his voice again behind me, "Stop by the boarding house some time?" I smile and nod, "Okay." I say simply as he returns my smile. I watch him turn back around and finally turn and move towards my own destination, knowing I need to get back before my parents realize I'm gone. Although, I'm sure Caroline more than likely covered for me. I scoff when I think that all she needed to do was tell them I was with Matt that would surely sedate them long enough.

My lips still tingle where Damon touched his own to mine. It had been so innocent, yet it felt like a world of possibilities had just been opened up to me. If he could make me feel like that with just a simple peck on the lips, there was no telling what would happen if I ever let him fully kiss me. I shivered at the thought, more in anticipation than anything else.

I look up when I arrive at the beach house and make my way around to the window of my bedroom. Seeing it's wide open, I silently thank Caroline and start shimming my way up the tree that has a limb leading directly onto the balcony. I swing my leg over the edge set my feet softly onto the ground.

Silently thanking the lord above when Caroline is fast asleep, I climb into my bed, knowing that I'll be able to escape her questioning for now at least. My eyes start to feel heavy when I hear a clearing of throat and huff when I look to see Caroline sitting up in her bed.

I try to lie immensely still in a futile attempt of pretending to already be asleep, hoping to escape talking to Caroline for now. I think I have her convinced until I hear my name warningly called from the other side of the room. Rolling my eyes, I pull my arms out from under the covers and throw them on top of the comforter.

"Caroline. I have just had a very long night and would appreciate it if you would just let me sleep right now."

"Well, excuse me for wanting to know why my best friend, whom I covered for all last night by the way, is just now dragging her ass through the window! Honestly Elena? You couldn't have called or texted me? I was worried, not to mention angry. So I'm sorry if you need a little beauty rest, but I would like to know the details and they better be some damn good ones."

I sigh and roll over towards her smiling. I secretly loved Caroline's rants; they only meant she loved you. "I was with Damon Salvatore last night." She sits for a moment with a blank stare like she doesn't believe me. But when I don't flinch she starts to jump up and down on the bed with excitement.

Caroline begins to fish me for details and gets frustrated all over again when I tell her there really aren't any to reveal. This, now that I'm talking to Caroline, surprises me. Damon never even attempted to make a move until this morning when he kissed me, a fact I hadn't recognized till just now. Normally guys, especially those met in bars, were scum, who saw you as one thing. It made me smile now that I realized Damon was so different than the typical guys I normally meet. Even Matt had the tendency to not be that thoughtful.

"You mean to tell me that you spent the whole night on a beach with a guy and all you did was talk. And sleep?" She questions and I nod.

"That doesn't sound like you at all." My mouth drops open with a scoff as I throw a pillow at her head. "Did you just call me a slut?"

She shrugs, smirking at me. "If the shoe fits Elena." I laugh with her before jumping over to her bed to attack her. I hold her down and she mumbles into the pillow for me to stop, "Caroline if I'm a slut, then what are you?" Caroline screams at me into the pillow before getting the upper hand and tackling me back. We squeal and pull each other's hair like we're little kids again, when a clearing throat from door of our room interrupts us.

I look up and see Mom standing in the doorway dressed in her usual summer shorts and t-shirt, looking every bit of relaxed that we both know she's faking. Rolling her eyes she walks into the room and goes to the laundry basket by the closet, "Honestly girls, you're a little old for all of that don't you think." She says with a slight laugh that makes me smile. She must be in a good mood today.

"Elena dear, Matt's downstairs waiting for you. You might want to get dressed. He says he's taking you out on the beach." My stomach instantly drops along with my smile and I nod my head. Now I know what has her in such a good mood.

I gulp and force a smile, "Tell him I'll be down in a minute okay?" Mom nods and picks up the laundry basket, taking it downstairs to be dealt with.

"Are you sure spending a day with Matt is really the best idea right now?" Caroline asks me as she starts to get dressed for the day.

"No, I don't. But what choice do I have Caroline? Mom and Dad fully expect me to be with Matt. They may not say that, but I know them. They would never accept Damon. Besides, I don't even know if Damon is a sure thing yet, we've only seen each other a few times."

"True, but judging by the way your face lights up when you talk about him makes me think that you're feelings for Matt are defiantly not what they should be. Why don't you just tell Matt Elena? I'm sure he'll understand."

I scoff and give Caroline a condescending look, "You and I both know that Matt, of all people, will not understand."

"I guess you're right." I nod and pick out my clothes for the day, trying in vain to go as slowly as possible. The longer it takes me to get ready the less time I actually have to spend with Matt. I pick out a simple red bikini and white shorts, opting to not wear a shirt and grab a towel, placing it in my beach bag. I braid my hair to the side before grabbing my bag and telling Caroline a short goodbye before walking down the stairs, where I find Matt waiting for me.

"Hey! You ready to go?" I sigh and finish walking down the stairs before walking to the kitchen, "Yeah, just let me grab a quick cup of coffee and then we will be on our way."

He follows me into the kitchen and holds me from behind and breathes in my hair. Something that I used to find comforting and unique, only Matt did it, making me feel, for some reason, special. But now, all I can focus on is the fact that I don't react to his touch the way I do to Damon's. While we hadn't touched each other much, the few times had left me wanting more. All I wanted now was for Matt to let go of me.

I finish making my coffee and subtly wiggle my way out of Matt's grasp. I follow him out of the back door of the kitchen, taking us to the wooden pathway that leads to the beach.

We fall into an uncomfortable silence, when I find myself suddenly wishing I was with Damon. While we had the tendency to stay quiet around each other for minutes at a time, it never held this tension in the air like something wasn't being said. I long to be lying in front of _The Shack _with him once again, listening to the waves crash onto the sand in the comfort of his arms. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but there's something going on between Damon and I, whether we want there to be or not.

"So, have you enjoyed your vacation so far?" Matt asks, breaking the silence and me from my wandering thoughts. I sigh, the last thing I want to do right now is make small talk. We have a serious problem to discuss, like why he didn't tell my parents we weren't together anymore.

"Matt, why didn't you tell Mom and Dad the truth the other day at brunch." He lets out a frustrated groan, bringing his hand to the back of his head, scratching it. A nervous habit of his.

"Oh come on Elena. You and I both know that we're not over." I stop in the pathway at his audacity. That had been exactly what I said when I saw him last. We were through, no questions asked. I couldn't handle Matt anymore. We just weren't compatible like I used to think we were. Don't get me wrong, I cared about him, you always care for your first love. But the spark that used to be there had long ago died out. I'm not even sure if there are any embers left to make a flame.

Matt turns around when he notices I am no longer following him. "What? You're telling me you meant it?" I don't say anything and give him a look that I am completely serious and justified in my decision.

"God 'Lena! I-" he scratches the back of his head again, "If you're so sure that we're over, then why didn't _you_ tell your parents?" I open my mouth to reply and realize I look like a fish out of water when the words that need to come, won't

Why hadn't I told my parents the truth? I'd told myself that it was just easier that way, that they would never accept it and maybe if they'd heard it from Matt that they would be ready to accept that we were not going to get married one day.

But really, when had I ever cared about what my parents thought? Their beliefs rarely affected my decisions. I made a point to always do what made me happy, not the other way around. When my parents wanted me to take ballet lessons, I'd insisted on tap dancing. When they wanted me to learn piano, I absolutely had to learn the guitar. Granted, they'd won that one. The piano was my only vice at times. So why had doing what my parents wanted suddenly become so important with an issue that was as big as marriage?

When asked the question, I couldn't answer and Matt saw my internal debate and took it for something else and walked over to me slowly like I was a wounded animal. He wrapped his arms around my shoulders hesitantly, pulling me close to him and continuing to walk down the boardwalk until I felt my toes reach sand.

"Look Elena, if what you really want is to break up, then we'll do it, right now and rip off the band aid. But I really wish you'd give me the chance to prove to you that I am more than just the right choice to make your parents happy. We've been together since we were in the ninth grade. Where on earth are we ever going to find someone that knows us better than we know each other?"

I sigh and look up at him before resting my head on his shoulder. "Oh Matty…" I trail off and decide to let him interpret that for what he will. He kisses the top of my head and whispers into my hair, "Spend the day here with me?"

I just nod.

…..

We spend the remainder of the day on the beach, talking about our various friends and when they were going to have their annual parties. We talked about college in the fall and where we saw our lives going from there. And we talked and talked and talked.

The talking never seemed to end and I could slowly feel my insanity fall away with each syllable that left his mouth. In all of the time that I have spent with Matt over the years, I have never realized how much he just…talked.

Talked about himself, about his family, about football. And for all of this time I had merely sat by and listened. Suddenly it became quite clear to me why I was always constantly bored with my life. Matt was someone I spent a majority of my time with, not always by choice. He always seemed to just be there. All of this time, I had spent listening to Matt; ramble on about the same mundane things that our parents talked about. Where I had ever found an interest in him, I had no idea.

In the beginning, I suppose it was because I just had always assumed that he was who I was supposed to be with. He was the football captain and I was the head cheerleader and all of that cliché crap. But somewhere in the middle, when I realized that I was allowed to have an opinion of my own,(even if my parents didn't say so), I discovered the real Elena. I haven't been a cheerleader since my sophomore year in high school. But Matt and I had stayed together, through thick and thin was what he always told me.

I struck me as strange that not eight hours earlier I had talked and talked to Damon without a single thought of boredom ever reaching my mind. But Damon made me laugh. He talked about things that I _wanted _to talk about. He never made me feel weird when I began rambling on about writing or music or what actually interested _me. _Matt never seemed to take my interests to heart anymore. Our future appeared to be the only thing that he had his sights on these days.

Near the end of the day, Matt asked me if I could ever just give him another chance to prove to me that we could be happy; that our lives would be sealed if we would only give the other the chance. I had looked off into the distance and hadn't said much of anything. And while I would rather imagine a life without Matt, a life with Matt is more practical. I will have my parent's unflinching approval, which guarantees an easy lane down the rest of my life. And Matt was a good guy. He'd never really given me a reason to break up with him other than I didn't see anything we had in common anymore.

When he grabbed his hand in mine, I bit my lip and nodded my head and told him that it wouldn't hurt to try for the summer. He'd smiled wide and pulled me close, kissing me square on the lips in a perfect movie scene setting. The ocean was blowing a soft breeze over us and the sun was setting in the east in all of its orange and red glory. Matt had held me close and pulled away, keeping that smile on as his gaze drifted back to the setting sun.

But all I could think of the entire time, was another kiss and another boy, whose mere peck on the lips had left me breathless and who didn't leave me wishing for an escape and who I actually wanted to be with, and the feelings I felt for that boy, were of no comparison to the boy I sat with now.

_Alright! That's chapter six! What did you think? Let me know in a review! And don't worry, there will be even more Delena goodness in the next chapter! _

_-Katherine_


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